Pot-Pollen in Stingless Bee Melittology

This book covers pot-pollen-–the other product, besides honey, stored in cerumen pots by Meliponini. Critical assessment is given for stingless bee and pollen biodiversity in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Topics addressed include historical biogeography, cultural knowledge, foraging behavior, pollination, ecological implications, health applications, the role of microbiology, the natural history of nests, and chemical, bioactive and palynological composition. 

 

Pot-pollen is a fascinating concentration of pollen grains collected, transformed and stored by stingless bees in cerumen pots. The Meliponini have developed particular nesting sites, entrances, uses of building materials,and an architecture for pollen storage. Temporal variations in pollen flow are used to study gene flow. Environmental windows provide optimal environmental temperature and availability of pollen sources for success in pollination and pollen storage. Palynological composition is used to relate the size of stingless bees to biomass. Pollen processing with microorganisms in the nest modifies chemical composition and bioactivity, and confers nutraceutical benefits to the honey and pollen widely relished by indigenous people. Microbiome surveys and bioactivity assays of this natural fermented pollen are showing promising probiotic and antagonistic activities with biotechnological potential. Sustainable meliponiculture (stingless bee-keeping) projects lack a treatise on pot-pollen, and experts provide this transdisciplinary work here for the first time.