The question came up, are stingless bees really stingless, or do they have stingers but just don't use them? I have been collecting material for an article about the stingless bees of Columbia, called “angelitas” (little angels). Anyway:

In response to external threats, stingless bees have evolved many fascinating defence traits, but they have also lost the most obvious defence trait, the sting (see also Chap. 1). The reduction of a functional sting during stingless bee evolution seems puzzling given that bee stingers can be a formidable weapon. However, the effectiveness of a sting might have been reduced due to the small body size of stingless bee ancestors (Melo 2020) and it is unclear if the sting would indeed be an effective weapon against the enemies that stingless bees face today. — GRUTER, CHRISTOPH. (2021). STINGLESS BEES: Their Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution. SPRINGER.


specifically about Colombia:

In present day Colombia, there are 120 species of stingless bees; abejas sin aguijon in Spanish. According to Guiomar Nates-Parra, the common cultivated genera are Tetragonisca, Melipona, Paratrigona, Scaptotrigonaand Nannotrigona. According to her, despite their common name, females have a modified and reduced but not functional stinger, and are the only group of bees native to America that has highly social behavior and perennial colonies that reproduce by swarms.—Nates-Parra, Guiomar. (2013) Diversity of Stingless Bees (Hymenoptera:Meliponini) Used in Meliponiculture in Colombia

PLB

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