meat honey
meat honey
The vulture bee is sometimes said to produce a so-called “meat honey”, but this is a misnomer resulting from scientific uncertainty, due to historic confusion of multiple species, each with a slightly different method of processing.
In one detailed study of Trigona hypogea in Brazil, the vulture bees mixed sugary plant products with a proteinaceous paste from regurgitated meat, and let it mature to form a sweet substance that was used as food; however, the two resources were initially kept in separate “pots” in the colony, neither being true honey (i.e., not derived from nectar), but they were then mixed together.
In a different study of Trigona necrophaga in Panama, the bees gathered nectar and produced honey, and they also produced a glandular secretion, derived from carrion, partially metabolized, used as a protein source, and kept completely separate from the honey. In neither case were the bees mixing meat-based substances with floral-derived substances.
Vulture bees usually enter the carcass through the eyes. They will then root around inside gathering the meat suitable for their needs.
On bed of mottled rocks
Amid flowers cold as ice
Pray the weak, the old, the poor
And when the tiny one from Heaven comes
Crawls inside the chosen skull
And when the tiny one it summons the others
To crawl inside the chosen skull
