Many of the phenotypic manifestations present in social insects are related to the development of exocrine glands, well represented by the nest-building behaviors. Among bees, four tribes compose the corbiculate bees, including both solitary and eusocial species: Apini, Bombini, Euglossini and Meliponini, which use wax as an endogenous product to construct several structures of their nests. Previous works described the presence of wax glands dorsally in meliponine bees, ventrally in Apis, and dorsally and ventrally in Bombus. In euglossine bees, there is some confusion about the presence and location of wax glands. This work, therefore, aims to investigate the position of the wax glands in the four tribes regarding the literature uncertainty. In addition, gathering more information allows a better interpretation of the evolution of this structure and provides more information on the evolution of corbiculate bees. In this work, we collected females from the four tribes of corbiculate bees in the active building area of the nest. Our data showed the presence of wax glands dorsally in Meliponini, ventrally in Apini, and ventrally and dorsally in Bombini; however, no trace of the wax gland was found in Euglossini. Therefore, the absence of wax products in Euglossini suggests that wax glands are an important component of social life and it should be understood as a unique acquisition of the clade formed by the three eusocial corbiculate bee tribes (Bombini, Meliponini and Apini).

社交昆虫中存在的许多表型表现都与外分泌腺的发育有关，并以筑巢行为很好地表现出来。在蜜蜂中，有四个部落组成了具象角的蜜蜂，包括单亲和亲社会的物种：Apini，Bombini，Euglossini和Meliponini，它们使用蜡作为内生产品来构造其巢的几种结构。先前的工作描述了在美甲蜜蜂中背侧存在蜡腺，在Apis中腹侧存在，在Bombus中背侧和腹中存在蜡腺。在尤格拉斯丁蜜蜂中，关于蜡腺的存在和位置有些困惑。因此，这项工作旨在调查关于文献不确定性的四个部落中蜡腺的位置。此外，收集更多的信息可以更好地解释这种结构的演变，并提供更多有关蜜蜂蜜蜂进化的信息。在这项工作中，我们从巢中活跃的建筑区域的四个蜜蜂科动物中收集了雌性。我们的数据显示，Meliponini背侧有蜡腺，Apini背侧有蜡腺，Bombini背侧和背有蜡腺。但是，在尤格洛西尼（Euglossini）中没有发现蜡腺。所以，