Tetragonisca angustula

It is a common species whose range runs from Veracruz in Mexico to Misiones in Argentina.

Jatai colonies can contain up to 10,000 workers.

This study provided evidence of a physical soldier subcaste in a bee, something not previously documented in social bees or wasps.

Soldiers are reared in low but sufficient numbers, about 1 to 2 percent of emerging workers.

The nest entrance is a tube of wax; guards stand inside and around its tip.

In the genus Tetragonisca the nest entrance can be closed at night with a network of fine threads.

A second group of guards hovers in the air near the entrance tube.

Both kinds of guard are about 30 percent heavier than foragers and differently shaped: foragers have relatively larger heads, guards have larger legs.

When challenged by the obligate robber bee Lestrimelitta limao, an important natural enemy, larger guards could fight the much larger robber for longer before being defeated.

Jatai is one of the main targets of Lestrimelitta limao raids, and in the Brazilian study area attacks frequently ended in the death of the colony.

Unlike many ants, jatai guards use their jaws not to cut or crush an enemy but to grab and clamp onto it.

Colonies keep more soldiers in areas where attacks by Lestrimelitta robber bees are more common.

In Brazil it is known as jatai.

It is one of the stingless bees most commonly kept by people in Latin America, even though this tiny bee produces very little honey.