Amazonian stingless bees, which include many species that play an important role as pollinators and are quite diverse in the Amazon, preferentially make their perennial nests in the base of hollow trees. In Belem, Dr. Giorgio Vertutieri study these bees for the Embrapal.
The stingless bees play an important role in the ethnobiology of the Kayapó (Poseyand Camargo, 1985; Camargo and Posey,1990). They named and classified 34 speciesof stingless bees, of which 9 were considered
managed or semi-domesticated. Resin and cerumen were used in their artifacts and as medicine. The natural world model of the Kayapó universe was taken from social insects, including stingless bees, ants and wasps.
In their religious ceremonies, meliponine wax or cerumen was used. Camargo and Posey (1990) mention that some Kayapó individuals knew many details of bee behavior, distribution, nest types and their respective ecological
zones.