Their main weapon against predatory animals, including human beings, is to entangle themselves in the victim's hair and buzz loudly.

They will also aggressively penetrate human bodily openings such as nasal and auditory orifices when in attack mode.

T. spinipes uses odor trails, sometimes extending several hundred metres, in order to lead nestmates from the hive to a food source.

[4] Trigona spinipes is in the order Hymenoptera, which includes bees, wasps, ants, and sawflies.

[8] Early studies of T. spinipes nests noted the presence of a dense internal structure referred to as the “scutellum” which was often used to paralyze fish because of its high content of acetylcholine.

This dense structure consists of nest waste such as adult bee excrements and its primary role is suggested to be an internal support upon which honeycombs are built.

[4] As for diet, Trigona spinipes has been known to collect pollen from a variety of plants, especially Eucalyptus spp., Aloe sp., and Archontophonix sp.

[9] Trigona spinipes is quite common in large areas of Brazil as well as Paraguay, Argentina, and other parts of South America.

[4][7] Studies concerning Trigona spinipes have largely been conducted in Eastern and Southeastern Brazilian states such as São Paulo, Alagoas and Minas Gerais.

When foraging, the workers utilize polarized odor-trail communication to relay the locations of food sources to each other.

Studies found synthetically produced octyl octanoate to be equally attractive to natural extract derived from the labial glands of foragers.

Usually 30–50 but sometimes even hundreds of males can be counted near virgin queen colonies in lek-like groups.

A study found that among 12 stingless bees investigated, Trigona spinipes was one of the 6 species that engaged in suicidal biting.

Caste determination is trophic, meaning that it is not hereditary, but rather depends on the quantity and quality of food consumed by larvae.

There is no size difference between queens and workers in other Meliponini species which utilize trophogenic caste determination mechanisms.

[18] Although they are smaller and have fewer ovarioles than queens, workers retain the ability to lay viable eggs.

A positive correlation has been found between polyandry and colony size across a variety of insects including ants, bees, and wasps.

This conflict may explain why Trigona spinipes, unlike honeybees, lay male and female eggs in identical cells.

[12] However, Trigona spinipes has also be found to damage a variety of food crops while collecting nest materials.