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Stingless Bees of Guatemala

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Abstract

The stingless bees in Guatemala include at least 33 species that belong to 17 genera and are widely distributed in the country, at different altitudinal ranges and forest types. They forage on flowers of a wide diversity, potentially contributing to their pollination. Their honey is highly appreciated by humans for its medicinal attributes and the honey of some species, particularly that of Melipona beecheii, Tetragonisca angustula, and Geotrigona acapulconis, is traditionally harvested. Usually hives of the former two species are kept with honey-harvesting purposes. Honey marketing faces some problems, one of which is the lack of compositional information of the product.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unidad de Conocimiento, Uso y Valoración de la Biodiversidad. Centro de Estudios Conservacionistas, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, Avenida Reforma 0-63 zona 10, Guatemala, 01010, Guatemala

    Carmen Lucía Yurrita Obiols & Mabel Vásquez

Authors
  1. Carmen Lucía Yurrita Obiols
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  2. Mabel Vásquez
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Correspondence to Carmen Lucía Yurrita Obiols .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Zumba Sur, University of the Andes, Villa Del Rio 8, Merida, 5101, Venezuela

    Patricia Vit

  2. Av. Bandeirantes, 3900, Ribeirão Preto, 14040-901, São Paulo, Brazil

    Silvia R. M. Pedro

  3. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancon, Panama

    David Roubik

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Obiols, C.L.Y., Vásquez, M. (2013). Stingless Bees of Guatemala. In: Vit, P., Pedro, S., Roubik, D. (eds) Pot-Honey. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4960-7_6

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