Stingless bees, sometimes called
stingless honey bees or simply
meliponines, are a large group of bees (about 500 species), comprising the tribe
Meliponini (or subtribe Meliponina according to other authors). They belong in the family
Apidae, and are closely related to common
honey bees,
carpenter bees,
orchid bees, and
bumblebees. Meliponines have stingers, but they are highly reduced and cannot be used for defense. Meliponines are not the only type of "stingless" bee; all male bees and many female bees of several other families, such as
Andrenidae, also cannot sting.