Dee Lusby writes:
>Among other articles he exhibits the figures of covered pots with two handles, which are said to be pots of "bees' honey." Of these pots, 200 are depicted in one tribute-toll, and 100 in several others."This account is confirmed by an account of the History of Mexico, written by the Abbe Clavigero, a native of Vera Cruz.
This certainly sounds like a description of Meliponi bee culture. The bees themselves are often kept in clay pots, as they have been for centuries. This is still done throughout the Yucatan and in the area around Vera Cruz. Meliponi are not found in northern Mexico or the United States. They are an entirely different genus of bee from our honey bee. How much different? Well, the brood is in combs, but they are horizontal like those of social wasps. The honey is in pots, like the bumble bee makes. There are several species of Apis, A. mellifera and A. cerana are examples. This difference is like that of the brown bear (Ursa americanus) and the grizzly bear (Ursa horribilis). Melipona is a different *genus*. This difference is like that between Ursa americanus (brown bear) and Canis occidentalis (timber wolf).
Notes:
>Beekeeping with stingless bees (meliponiculture) in Mexico is an ancient tradition which today is in the process of disappearing. [On] the Yucatan peninsula, out of 13 native species, Melipona beechi (colel-kab) was favored because of the nest size, the flavour of the honey, the gentleness of the bees, and probably its attractive golden appearance, to the extent it was practically the only species under domestic management by the Maya.
from Bee World, #4, 2001
>Bishop San Diego de Landa, who arrived in the Yucatan in 1549, seven years after the Spanish conquest, wrote the only surviving extensive description: "There are two kinds of bees and both are very much smaller than ours. They do not make honeycomb as ours do, but a kind of small blisters like walnuts of wax all joined together and full of honey. ... These bees do not sting nor do they harm when the honeycombs are cut out." ... Melipona beechi has very much the appearance of a small (about half-size) honeybee. Its Maya name is "colecab", which means "lady bee" and in Mayan beliefs it seems to be at least somewhat holy. ... When [Apis] honeybees were first brought to Yaxcaba, they caused a great deal of excitement. They were so large, the colonies were so populous, and they gathered somuch honey, that many of the people were convinced that these were in fact *the gods of colecab*.
from Bee World, #1, 1981
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As to what the wild honey bees of Arizona are, Eric Mussen writes, in May 2000:
>Outside of Tucson, in caves in cliffs, researchers found that feral colonies fluctuate between 87 and 100% African Honey Bee, according to mitochondrial DNA analysis.
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