Stingless Bee (Meliponini sp.)

That afternoon, I noticed small objects flying like drones and then perching on white rose apple flowers. Lebah-lebah kelulut—that's what Indonesians and Malaysians call stingless bees—began to suck nectar through the pistils. Those white rose apple flowers produce sour nectar, but the stingless bees seemed quite greedy in sipping that!

Stingless bees (Meliponini) are a large group of cosmopolitan bees belonging to the Apidae family. Stingless bees live in colonies, building nests in cavities in hardwood trunks, including bamboo. Some local people in our area have stingless bee farms. The honey produced by stingless bees is delicious to consume and good for your health. Some are sweet, some are sour; the taste of the honey produced by stingless bees depends on the flowers they suck.

Besides the white rose apple plants, there were Jamaican cherry trees in our yard. Stingless bees also like the nectar of these flowers. Jamaican cherry blossoms are certainly sweeter than white rose apples. The stingless bees will produce sweet honey.

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^{These photos are my own, taken with POCO X3 NFC smartphone + external macro lens.}