Trigona corvina (Cockerell, 1913) is a species of stingless bee that lives primarily in Central and South America.

They live in protective nests high in the trees, but they can be extremely aggressive and territorial over their resources.

[3] This black stingless bees of the tribe Meliponini can be parasitic toward citrus trees but also helpful for crop pollination.

[2] Fossil records of the Meliponini tribe have been discovered and it is now understood that they differentiated from other related wasps in the Late Cretaceous period.

The virgin queens are differentiated from the workers by their shiny head, wider thorax and longer wings.

Trigona fuscipennis workers are also completely black with one narrow red band just before the apex of the mandibles.

But unlike the T. corvina species, they are smaller, have a slightly different mandible color and do not have erect black bristles.

[1] The outer layers of the nest are designed to be easily broken in case of attack or a quick exit.

The layers consist of sheaths of hardened and brittle resin or cerumen (wax) supported by columns.

It is important to maintain their heterozygosity for their continued proliferations and it is of concern because there has been a decline in diversity and abundance of insect pollinators.

[12] Once the queen begins her colony, she grows in size and eventually loses the ability to fly.

[14] The function of signaling depends on the profitability, but they commonly will scent mark a food source either for self-orientation, to deter rivals or to direct a nest mate to the resource.

Color vision has emerged as an important characteristic for Trigona corvina since it enables them to identify other black bees from rival species.

When the trained bee returns, they will be visually conspicuous about the food location by repeated hovering and landing behavior.

From sampling pollen excrements, it is clear that Cavanillesia (Bombacaceae) is a primary food source for this species of bee.

Level 1 is a low intensity threat that may occur when a rival bee approaches an occupied food source.

They will then lift their abdomen and hold their wings at a wide angle; level 1 is only a display of aggression.

Level 2 involves brief bodily contact and the goal is to knock the intruder off of the plant or to the ground if the fight occurs in the air.

Bees involved will release an alarm pheromone, which will bring nest mates to their assistance.

They have to find an Evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) between the two important activities in order to gain the most benefit.

Additionally, if a T. corvina nest is vacated, an African honey bee colony may move in.

They also are able to forage more rapidly, so they have a much higher overall yield and their large size makes it difficult for the T. corvina to defend their territories.

[9] T. corvina workers have been found with mites attached to the outer face of their hind tibiae.