Notes on Plant Resins and Other Building Sticky Materials in the Life of Seven Stingless Bee Species from the Chaco Region, Argentina

Stingless bees forage for sticky materials (resins, mucilage, latex, etc.) from some plants, transport the materials to their nests, and mix them with beeswax (wax secreted by bee body glands) to make cerumen, which is the structural material of all stingless bee nests. At times I observed some colonies robbing cerumen from other stingless bee nests. Resin deposits were sometimes found within nests. In this work, plant identity, organs, and tissues involved in the secretion of resin, mucilage, and latex were identified as being foraged by stingless bees and Apis mellifera in the Chaco region of Argentina. And, nonplant resources (mud, cerumen, and waxy material from bee nests) were also reported. Sticky material found on the corbicula was microphotographed. The diversity of cerumen structures in nests is shown. In addition, cerumen pots for storing and preserving honey and pollen provisions are comparatively illustrated. Although only a few occasional observations on the foraging of sticky material were documented, this behavior and the botanical origin of cerumen need to be further studied in the Chaco region.