Abstract This study investigates the recruitment communication mechanisms of a stingless bee, Melipona panamica, whose foragers can evidently communicate the three-dimensional location of a good food source. To determine if the bees communicate location information inside or outside the nest, we conducted removal experiments by training marked foragers to one of two identical feeders and then separating these experienced foragers from potential recruits as they left the nest. The feeders were positioned to test the communication of each dimension. The results show that recruits do not simply follow experienced foragers to the food source. Height and distance are communicated within the nest, while direction is communicated outside the nest. We then examined the pulsed sounds produced by recruiting foragers. While unloading food, recruiting foragers produced several short pulses and one or more very long pulses. On average, the longest unloading pulse per performance was 3150% longer (P0.018) for bees foraging on the forest floor than for bees foraging at the top of the forest canopy (40m high). While dancing, recruiting foragers produced sound pulses whose duration was positively correlated with the distance to the food source (P0.001). Dancing recruiters also produced several short sound pulses followed by one or more long pulses. The longest dance pulse per performance was 291194ms for a feeder 25m from the nest and 1858923ms for a feeder 360m away from the nest. The mechanism of directional communication remains a mystery. However, the direction removal experiment demonstrates that newcomers cannot use forager-deposited scent marks for long-distance orientation (100m from the nest).