1 Africanized honey bees (AHBs) are the predominant flower visitors of many plants in the neotropics, although little evidence is available on their efficiency as pollinators on native crops. 2 Annatto (Bixa orellana) is a buzz-pollinated neotropical tree. We compared the pollination service provided by AHBs and native Melipona beecheii (Mb) to annatto in the Yucatan. As a result of the different abilities of both species to sonicate, a prediction of the present study is that AHBs on individual visits would result in less efficient pollinators on this crop. 3 A higher frequency of AHBs on flowers (73.8%) compared with Mb (21.3%) was found. However, AHBs deposited significantly less pollen on the stigma and produced less fruits, with fewer seeds and weight, than Mb. A higher pollination index efficiency was obtained for Mb (0.9) compared with AHBs (0.6). 4 AHBs did not sonicate annatto and gleaned the pollen released after Mb visits, which suggests that they act as commensals of the latter. 5 By acting as commensals, AHBs, despite their high abundance, appear to marginally contribute to the pollination of annatto. Studies conducted under scenarios with a differential abundance of AHBs and efficient sonicating species are necessary to test this hypothesis on annatto and other buzz-pollinated plants in the neotropics.