Cerumen

Many species of social bee create a substance called cerumen and then use this to construct their nests. Cerumen is a mixture of tree resin (often in the form of propolis) that is mixed with beeswax. The consistency and colour of the cerumen is often determined by the trees close to the bee nest since this is where the resin is collected from.

Stingless bess construct their nests from cerumen and use it to construct the walls and cells. In some species they also construct long entrance tunnels.

A photograph of an adult stingless bee (Trigona spinipes). Stingless bees construct their nests using cerumen.
Photograph by Ironman br licensed under Creative Commons.

Related terms

• Africanised honey bees
• Apiary
• Apoidea
• Bee bread
• Beeswax
• Colony Collapse Disorder
• Drone
• Eusocial
• Honey
• Honey bee
• Pollen basket
• Pollination
• Propolis
• Queen
• Queen cell
• Queen excluder
• Queen substance
• Varroa mite
• Worker

Related groups of terms

• General biology

Related pages on this web site

• Bees
• Bees and Beekeeping: From simple bee-ginnings

See other words beginning with C