Professor Patricia Vit, MSc PhD

Universidad de Los AndesFaculty of Pharmacy and BioanalysisFood Science DepartmentMérida, Venezuela

The Sydney UniversityCancer Research GroupDiscipline of Biomedical ScienceSydney, Australia

Dr. Silvia R.M. PedroUniversidade de São PauloSchool of Philosophy, Sciences and LiteratureBiology DepartmentBrasil

Dr. David W. RoubikSmithsonian Tropical Research InstituteTerrestrial Biology DivisionEntomology DepartmentPanama

Provides reviews, new research, guidelines, and references on diverse topics concerning pollen from the world's leading experts

Investigates controlling factors in the behavior of pollinators returning to their nests, predicting behavior of different stingless bee species

Analyzes the development of artificial diets, management, pest control, and marketing of stingless bee-keeping

Includes supplementary material: [...]

Forewords

Introduction

Acknowledgements

SECTION 1

Pollen and the Evolution of Mutualism

1. Pot-Pollen as a Discipline. What Does it Include? 1.1. Pot-Pollen and Palynology from an Ecological Point of View 1.2. A Modern Synthesis of Bee-Pollen and Pot-Pollen Study

1.3. Plant Reproduction 1.4. Pollination

1.5. Pollen Biology and Palynology 1.6. Applied Pollen Taxonomy

2. Are Stingless Bees a Broadly Polylectic Group? An Empirical Study of the Adjustments Required for an Improved Assessment of Pollen Diet in Bees

2.1. Introduction 2.2. Pollen Specialization Categories in Bees

2.3. Pollen Analysis of Samples 2.4. Adjustment Calculations to Assess Pollen Specialization Categories in Stingless Bees

2.4.1. Modifying the Number of Foraged Resource Items: Threshold Values and Pollen Type Versus Pollen Species

2.4.2. Modifying the Number of Available Resources: Spatial and Temporal Adjustments 2.5. The Importance of an Appropriate Assessment of Pollen Specialization in Bees: Factors Causing Low Number of Foraged Items

2.5.1 Abundant Versus Minor Pollen Types

2.5.2 Recruitment Behaviour

2.5.3 Intra-nest Pollen Analysis

2.6. Factors Causing High Number of Available Items<

2.7. Polylecty, Broad Polylecty or Simply degrees of polylecty?<

3. Pollen collected by stingless bees: a contribution to understand Amazonian biodiversity

3.1. Introduction

3.1.1 Origin and Evolution of Plant-Bee Interactions

3.2. The Use of Pollen Analysis in the Study of Bees in the Amazon Rainforest 3.3. Diversity of Plants, Stingless Bees and their Interactions in Central Amazon

3.4. Amazonian Bee Diet, Biology and Suggested Interactions Potentially Leading to Pollination 3.5. How to Improve Meliponiculture for Sustainable Development in the Amazon

3.6. Conclusions

4. The Stingless Honey Bees (Apidae, Apinae: Meliponini) in Panama, and Ecology from Pollen Analysis 4.1. An Introduction to the Stingless Honey Bees and Pot-Pollen, in Panama 4.2. Pollen niche, relative specialization, and pollen spectrum

4.2.1 Qualitative and quantitative analyses

4.2.2 Field bee short-term resource selection

4.2.3 Pollen of popular meliponines , Africanized honeybees and lesser known species

4.2.4 Pollination ecology and population biology

4.2.5 Conclusions and ecological perspective

5. The value of plants for the Mayan stingless honey bee Melipona beecheii (Apidae: Meliponini): a pollen-based study in the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico

5.1. Understanding the Ecology of a Mayan Resource and Cultural Icon 5.2. Baseline Studies of Invasive Honeybees and Native Neotropical Bees 5.3. Fieldwork

5.4. Pollen Analysis from Pot-Pollen Samples

5.5. Understanding Bee Resource Use in Dynamic Natural Environments

6. Melittopalynological Studies of Stingless Bees from East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia

6.1. Introduction ^len Collection by Heterotrigona itama in Tropical Island of Taman Tropika Kenyir, Terengganu

6.3. Pollen Collection and Abundance among Colonies of Lepidotrigona terminata from a Meliponary in Besut, Terengganu 6.4. Selected Flowers Producing Pollen Preferred by Stingless Bees in Terengganu

6.5. Conclusions

7. The Contribution of Palynological Surveys to Stingless Bee Conservation: a Case Study with Melipona subnitida 7.1. Introduction

7.2. Floral Resources-Dynamics: Pot-Pollen versus Pollen from the Bees' Body

7.3. Melittopalynology as Tool for Restoration Strategies: Suitable Foraging Habitats 7.4. Concluding Remarks and Future Steps

8. Pollen Storage by Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides in a Protected Urban Atlantic Forest Area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

8.1. Introduction

8.2. Getting Pollen Loads and Pollen Grains by M. quadrifasciata anthidioides 8.3. Palynological Characteristics of Pollen Batches Collected from the Baskets of M. quadrifasciata anthidioides

8.3.1 Monofloral Pollen Loads

8.3.2 Bifloral Pollen Loads

8.3.3 Heterofloral Pollen Loads

8.3.4 Additional Pollen Types

8.3.5 Additional Structured Elements 8.4. Plant Families, Genera and Species Mostly Visited by M. quadrifasciata anthidioides

8.5. Conclusion

9. Angiosperm Resources for Stingless Bees (Apidae, Meliponini): A Pot-Pollen Melittopalynological Study in the Gulf of Mexico

9.1. Introduction 9.2. Background of Melittopalynological Studies in Mexico 9.3. Methods and Study Areas

9.4. Floral Resources Foraged by Melipona beecheii in the State of Campeche

9.4.1 Angiosperm Resources for Melipona beecheii 9.4.2 Physicochemical Analyses of Melipona beecheii Pot-Honey

9.5. Meliponiculture and Melitopalynological Study of Pot-Honey and Pot-Pollen in Veracruz

9.5.1 INANA¿s Sustainable Meliponiculture

9.5.2 Angiosperm Resources for Scaptotrigona mexicana, Plebeia sp. and Melipona beecheii in Veracruz

9.6. Analysis of the Plant Preferences of Stingless Bees in Campeche and Veracruz, Gulf of Mexico 9.7. Angiosperms Recorded in Systematic Mexican Melittopalynological Studies of Stingless Bees

9.8. General Considerations

10. Annual Foraging Patterns of the Maya Bee Melipona beecheii (Bennett, 1831) in Quintana Roo, Mexico

10.1. Introduction

10.2. A case study

10.2.1 Field observations: registering bees activity

10.2.2. Foraging Activity to Collect Pollen and Nectar

10.2.3. Stored Pot-Honey and Pot-Pollen Reserves

10.2.4. Offspring 10.3. Correlations Between the Studied Factors<

11. Crop Pollination by Stingless Bees 11.1. Introduction

11.2. Characteristics of Stingless Bees as Pollinators

11.3. Field Crop Pollination by Stingless Bees 11.4. Greenhouse Crop Pollination by Stingless Bees

11.5. Stingless Bee Management under Greenhouse Conditions

11.6. Perspectives

12. Stingless Bees as Potential Pollinators in Agroecosystems in Argentina: Inferences from Pot-Pollen Studies in Natural Environments

12.1. Introduction 12.2. Potential Pollination by Stingless Bees: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors

12.2.1 Advantages and Disadvantages of a Reduced-Moderate Flight Range in Stingless Bees

12.2.2. Pollination Using Ground Nesting Stingless Bees 12.3. Pollen Spectra of Pot-Pollen in Colonies of Stingless Bees from Natural Environments

12.4. Crops Potentially Pollinated by Stingless Bees in Argentina 12.5. Spatial Variation of Crops in Argentina

12.6. Temporal Variation of Flower Availability in Agroecosystems 12.7. Crop and Non-Crop Flowerings Present in Agroecosystems Beneficial for the Maintenance of Permanent Stingless Bee Colonies

12.7.1. Pollinating the Target Crop

12.7.2. Weeds and Edge Vegetation as Complementary Flowerings for Permanent Stingless Bee Colonies

12.7.3. Diversified Agroecosystems as Best Habitat for Stingless Bee Pollination and Colony Management

12.8. Case Study: Pollination of Strawberries with Plebeia catamarcensis (Holmberg) in Santa Fe, Central Argentina

12.8.1. Strawberry Cultivation in Argentina

12.8.2 The Strawberry in Santa Fe

12.8.3 Meliponini: Potential Pollinators in Santa Fe Strawberry Crops

SECTION 2 Biodiversity, Behavior and Microorganisms of the Stingless Bees (Meliponini)

13. Stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Meliponini) from Gabon

13.1. Introduction 13.2. Taxonomy and Morphological Diversity of Stingless Bees in Gabon 13.3. Distribution of Stingless Bee Fauna in Gabon

13.4. Biology, Ecology and Nesting Behavior of the Stingless Bees

13.5. Knowledge and Traditional Use of Stingless Bees in Gabon 13.6. Conclusion

14. Pushing 100 Species: Meliponines (Apidae: Meliponini) in a Parcel of Western Amazonian Forest at Yasuní Biosphere Reserve, Ecuador

14.1. Yasuní Forest and Melittological Background 14.2. Discovering Meliponine Biodiversity

14.3. Species Accounts and Frequency

14.4. Insights from Comparative Morphology and other Rich Amazonian Areas 14.5. Bioprospecting for Pollination Knowledge and Sustainable Exploitation

15. Diversity of Stingless Bees in Ecuador, Pot-Pollen Standards and Meliponiculture Fostering a Living Museum for Meliponini of the World

15.1. Introduction

15.2. Megabiodiversity of Stingless Bees in Ecuador 15.3. A Revised Ecuadorian Honey Norm and Approach to Pot-Pollen Standards 15.4. Stingless Bee Keepers are Crucial for the Heritage and Conservation Mission

15.5. A Stingless Bee Window to Look at Climate Warming 15.5. Why a Living Museum to Embrace Meliponini of the World?

16. Nesting Ecology of Stingless Bees in Africa 16.1. Introduction

16.2. Meliponine Origin, Dispersal and Richness

16.3. Stingless Bee Species in Africa

16.4. Stingless Bee Nest Architecture 16.5. African Stingless Bee Nesting Behavior

17. On the Trophic Niche of Bees in Cerrado Areas of Brazil and Yeasts in their Stored Pollen

17.1. Introduction

17.2. Pollen Harvested by Native Bees of the Cerrado

17.3. Yeasts in Stored Pollen: Diversity and Ecological Role

18. A Review of the Artificial Diets Used as Pot-Pollen Substitutes

18.1. Introduction 18.1.1 Aim of the Chapter 18.1.2 How do Stingless Bees Harvest and Store their Food?

18.2. The Fermentation Process in Stingless Bees Storage Pots

18.2.1 General Characteristics of Pollen Fermentation

18.2.2 Microbial fermentation and nutritional enhancement of pollen

18.2.3 Impacts of Exogenous Compounds in Pollen

18.3. Microorganisms Present in Pot-Pollen

18.3.1 Generalities of host-associated microorganisms

18.3.2 Bacteria

18.3.3 Yeasts

18.3.4 Filamentous Fungi 18.4. Development of Artificial Diets

19. Yeast and Bacterial Composition in Pot-Pollen Recovered from Meliponini in Colombia: Prospects for a Promising Biological Resource 19.1. Introduction 19.2. General Properties of Corbicular Bee-Derived Pollen 19.3. The Key...