THE STINGLESS BEES (MELIPONIDAE) OF MEXICO

Resumen

Because the Old World honeybee, Apis mellifera, is so much a part today of the apifauna of the Western Hemisphere, it is difficult
to think of it as an alien that only a few centuries ago was confined to the eastern half of our globe. In paying tribute to the honeybee for the aid it has rendernd to man and to his civilizalion, it is well however, not to forget that, long before the introduction into our hemisphere of this cooperctive insect, there were other social bees, belonging to the family Meliponidae, that throughout the tropical areas, at least, kept the aboriginal inhabitants supplied with tasty honey and useful wax.