Frieseomelitta varia
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
Frieseomelitta varia, commonly known as the abelha marmelada-amarela (Brazilian Portuguese: "yellow marmalade bee"), is a species of eusocial stingless bee in the family Apidae and tribe Meliponini. F. varia is native to Brazil.
In social insects, chemical communication is the most evolved form of communication. The chemicals produced for this type of communication are called hydrocarbons, that come from cuticular lipids. These chemicals produce can communicate certain things such as age, sex, reproductive status, caste, and which colony the individual is from. F. varia have 15 glands on their legs, some of which are thought to be used to produce pheromones.
Worker bees, called guards, protect their nest and colony from any individual that does not belong to said colony, called non-nestmates. Through olfactory senses and cuticular lipids produced by F. varia, guard nests are able to differentiate and either accept or reject individuals. However, this was shown to work best on older non-nestmate individuals. Newly emerged worker bees do produce a specific hydrocarbon based on which colony they emerged from. Since these worker bees... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Belo Horizonte | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Frieseomelitta varia sighting in Belo Horizonte on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 139th most-seen of the 186 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May, July–August and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Frieseomelitta varia in Belo Horizonte on a given day, against under 5% in June, September–October and December–April, the lowest months.
Only Belo Horizonte, in our data
Belo Horizonte is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Frieseomelitta varia sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Apidae
The closest relatives of the Frieseomelitta varia that you can see in Belo Horizonte (family Apidae, Honey Bees, Bumble Bees, and Allies) are Narrow Stingless Bee (about 10%), Spiny-Legged Stingless Bee (about 10%) and Grayish Carpenter (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Frieseomelitta varia is recorded against all the insects logged in Belo Horizonte (6 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
