Stingless Honeybee (Sugarbag) Naming, Identification and Conceptualization in Arnhem Land—A Lexicographic Approach

Abstract

The stingless honeybees of Arnhem Land (sugarbag) are a culturally important, but hard-to-identify group of insects. As a result, the dictionary definitions of these creatures in a range of Australian languages tend to lack precise scientific identifications, while also containing inaccurate or contradictory ethnobiological information. This paper attempts to address this problem by investigating honeybee terms and their semantics in 10 languages of western and central Arnhem Land. Biological specimens were collected in the presence of knowledgeable speakers of three languages, and identified by a taxonomist. Interviews with speakers of the remaining seven languages allowed the assigning of identifications to bee names in these languages. While the names and identifications of bee names in the languages Kune and Rembarrnga are presented here with a high degree of certainty, the proposed name correspondences, ethnospecies categories and scientific identifications for the remaining languages are tentative. Issues such as cross-linguistic patterns in naming, and inter-speaker and inter-language variation in the conceptualization of named categories are discussed. The paper concludes with a discussion on the lexicographic challenges of writing scientifically accurate and culturally sensitive definitions of invertebrate names.