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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsAustralian Stingless Bees Build Stunning Spiral Hives and No One's Quite Sure Why
They inhabit the northern parts of Australia, although on the east coast they reach a bit further south than Sydney[, and occur in other tropical parts of the world[, while t]he Australian species are much smaller than European honey bees.
"The hives do not resemble those found in other bee populations in a number of ways:
The hives have an intricate, clockwise spiraling design.
Each hive features only one entrance.
The hive entrances are coated with a pathogen-blocking sticky layer, an extra line of defense for the bees which, according to Heard, do not have a sting although they can give you a little bite with their jaws.
[pics at link]
https://amp.interestingengineering.com/australian-stingless-bees-build-stunning-spiral-hives-and-no-ones-quite-sure-why?__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR3Mze30YVXntjf5QE5vDfRAkHOS9yj8_UJ7wTSVVPeSMF6RQ4tE8lPL9lo
Donkees
(31,085 posts)eppur_se_muova
(36,227 posts)Probably started out as an error in the usual genes controlling comb-building behavior. It must have some advantage, so it was retained in the genome.