| Vulture bee | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Apidae |
| Genus: | Trigona |
| Subgenus: | Trigona (Trigona) |
| Species | |
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Vulture bees, also known as carrion bees, are a small group of three closely related South American stingless bee species in the genus Trigona which feed on rotting meat. Some vulture bees produce a substance similar to royal jelly which is not derived from nectar, but rather from protein-rich secretions of the bees' hypopharyngeal glands.[1] These secretions are likely derived from the bees' diet, which consists of carrion eaten outside the nest, and resulted in the belief that they produce what is known as "meat honey".[2] This unusual behavior was only discovered in 1982, nearly two centuries after the bees were first classified.[3]
- ^ Camargo, João M. F.; Roubik, David W. (September 1991). "Systematics and bionomics of the apoid obligate necrophages: the Trigona hypogea group (Hymenoptera: Apidae; Meliponinae)". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 44 (1): 13–39. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1991.tb00604.x.
- ^ Figueroa, Laura L.; Maccaro, Jessica J.; Krichilsky, Erin; Yanega, Douglas; McFrederick, Quinn S. (21 December 2021). "Why Did the Bee Eat the Chicken? Symbiont Gain, Loss, and Retention in the Vulture Bee Microbiome". mBio. 12 (6): e02317–21. doi:10.1128/mBio.02317-21. PMC 8609352. PMID 34809450.
- ^ Roubik, D. W. (10 September 1982). "Obligate necrophagy in a social bee". Science. 217 (4564): 1059–1060. Bibcode:1982Sci...217.1059R. doi:10.1126/science.217.4564.1059. PMID 17839343. S2CID 10969307.