Within the Hymenoptera, compound eyes are involved in important tasks such as mate detection, spatial orientation, and navigation. Here, we describe and compare the morphology of the compound eye of Melipona favosa and Exaerete smaragdina , two species of corbiculate bees found in South America- Colombia- and evaluate possible species-specific morphological characteristics within a shared eye type. Our results show both species have apposition compound eyes with a lobulated cornea, the optimal design when there is a reduced body size. The retinula of both species share the plesiomorphic eight sensory cell arrangement, but the organization towards the rhabdom differs. E. smaragdina shows a wider cornea, the crystalline cones are also wider and along with the rhabdoms they have higher concentration of primary and secondary pigmentary cells. We propose this optic design can be advantageous for E. smaragdina kleptoparasitic behavior, decreasing the light threshold and increasing sensitivity for better host-specific recognition. We conclude that the observed differences can be explained by the ecological niches and behavior of each species. Although our observations can be consistent with an ecological interpretation, more species must be studied to understand the effect of ecology and behavior on morphological variations of the compound eyes between bee species.