Nahuatl bees

[jonathan.amith at yale.edu]

Molly,

I have several identifications for bees from my work in Balsas valley, 
Guerrero

Xi:kohtli   Most commonly Xylocopa spp. The determined species are X.
guatemalensis and X. mexicanorum. However, the term also covers Bombus sp.,
with the one identified specimen a Bombus steindachneri. Michener in his Bees
of the World, p. 596, in ref. to Tribe Xylocopini states that "The are often
confused with bumblebees (Bombis, in the Apinae) by the uninitiated" So it
would not be unusual for xi:kohtli to cover both.

tla:lnekwtli is perhaps prototypically a ground-dwelling stingless bee, 
Trigona
(Geotrigona) acapulconis in the Balsas valley. Its honey and wax are still
used, the wax for very coveted candles, although it is now mixted with 
parafin.
The wax is a dark yellow and quite fragrant. There are quite a few 
other species
that are sometimes identified as tla:lnekwtli, mostly stingless bees, 
but the T.
acapulconis seems to be the target of this term as when beewax collectors go
out, this is what they bring back.

mi:mia:watl, a reduplicated form of mia:watl, which refers to the spike 
of most
grasses, though prototypically that of maize, is in Balsas used to refer to
Polistes instabilis, a paper wasp. In the Sierra Norte de Puebla it 
refers to a
small serpent (still not identified) and in the combined form 
xi:kalkuitamia:wat
(often plural xi:kalkuitamia:wameh) to a bee or wasp, still not identified.

Otherwise, in the Balsas, the only other term for a type of bee is 
tlatsiwistli,
mostly stingless bees, a polyphyletic group covering various genera.

There is quite a bit of ethnoentomological information on stingless bee use in
Brazil, e.g., Darrel Posey's article in J. Ethnobiology 3:63-73.

Jonathan Amith

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