Abstract: On a worldwide scale, Brazil is the country hosting the greatest number of stingless bee species. The species natural distribution favours the Amazonian basin, even though the Meliponinies settlement area (family to which these insects belong) covers the entire national territory. In southern Brazil, Meliponinies domestication for a long time concerned exclusively the Tetragonisca angustula, a very common species in Latin America, and some melipona: Melipona bicolor, M. marginata, M. quadrifasciata. The harsh pressure on nests linked with the d...
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