[2] M. beecheii was cultivated in the Yucatán Peninsula starting in the pre-Columbian era by the ancient Maya civilization.

[1] M. beecheii can be found in Central America, especially in the southern Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.

[5] M. beecheii builds its nests inside hollow cavities of trees, and as a result, has been seriously affected by deforestation.

Beekeepers who work with M. beecheii in the Mayan zone in Quintana Roo state, Mexico, have reported a 93% decrease in hives over the past 25 years.

As a result of this potential to self-determine, immature females may try to develop as queens to gain greater reproductive opportunities.

[6] Similar to most beehives, an M. beecheii colony has one fertile queen and numerous nonreproductive female worker bees.

[11] Melipona beecheii reproduction depends on many abiotic factors, including the time of year, climate, and resources available.

In contrast, due to poor resource obtainment, M. beecheii populations decreased when there were good foraging conditions and food storage had built up.

In general, American foulbrood, which is caused by Paenibacillus larvae, is a harmful disease for all honey-producing bees, but there is not much data regarding its specific effect on M.

M. beecheii pollinates the flowers by carrying both nectar and pollen between plants, allowing them to collect food for themselves and their colony in the process.

For M. beecheii in its tropical environment, its other pollinating, stingless bee competitors include Melipona fasciata and other nests of M.

The main pheromone involved in eliciting a communal attack response in M. beecheii is farnesyl acetate.

As a result, M. beecheii is facing loss of habitat and the ancient tradition of stingless beekeeping is on the verge of dying out.

[1] Because M. beecheii is a stingless bee and eats nectar, its ecological niche does not involve hunting pest insects.

However, M. beecheii plays an extremely important role in honey production, as they have been kept for centuries almost exclusively in log nests primarily by people who live in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico.

Due to the concern that stingless bee keeping is going extinct, the possibility of negative effects resulting from the impact of competition from feral African Apis mellifera, over-harvesting, failure to transfer colonies to hives or divide them, deforestation, hurricane damage and lack of instruction and incentive for new stingless bee keepers has been postulated and explored.

[1] In accordance with Mayan history, M. beecheii are the embodiment of a link to the spirit world, an endowment of the god Ah Muzen Cab.

According to the Maya tradition, a priest would harvest M. beecheii honey during a religious ceremony that would take place twice a year.