Dwarf Honey Bee

Description:

One of two species of wild small honey bees in southern and southeastern Asia. These little bees have a bright orange abdomen with black and white stripes on the back half. The head and thorax are black/grey. Body length is about 10 mm.

Habitat:

I couldn't believe my eyes when I found a nest full of these little guys in my garden. The Dwarf Honey Bees will build simple, exposed nests in in sheltered locations in trees.

Notes:

From wikipedia about their nesting behaviour: The forager bees do not perform a gravity oriented waggle dance on the vertical face of the comb to recruit nestmates as in the domesticated Apis mellifera and other species. Instead they perform the dance on the horizontal upper surface where the comb wraps around the supporting branch. The dance is a straight run pointing directly to the source of pollen or nectar that the forager has been visiting. In all other Apis species, the comb on which foragers dance is vertical, and the dance is not actually directed towards the food source.