This book covers pot-pollen-the other product, besides honey, stored in cerumen pots by Meliponini. Critical assessment is given of stingless bee and pot-pollen biodiversity in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Topics addressed include historical biogeography, cultural knowledge, bee foraging behavior, pollination, ecological interactions, health applications, microbiology, the natural history of bee nests, and chemical, bioactive and individual plant components in stored pollen. Pot-pollen maintains the livelihoods of stingless bees and provides many interesting biological products that are just now beginning to be understood. The Meliponini have developed particular nesting biologies, uses of building materials, and an architecture for pollen storage. Environmental windows provide optimal temperature and availability of pollen sources for success in plant pollination and pollen storage. Palynological composition and pollen taxonomy are usedto assess stingless honey bee pollination services. Pollen processing with microorganisms in the nest modifies chemical composition and bioactivity, and confers nutraceutical benefits to the honey and pollen widely relished by native people. Humans have always used stingless bees. Yet, sustainable meliponiculture (stingless bee-keeping) projects have so far lacked a treatise on pot-pollen, which experts provide in this transdisciplinary, groundbreaking volume.

Forewords

Introduction
Acknowledgements
SECTION 1 Pollen and the Evolution of Mutualism
1.  Pot-Pollen as a Discipline. What Does it Include?
2. Are Stingless Bees a Broadly Polylectic Group? An Empirical Study of the Adjustments Required
3. Pollen collected by stingless bees:  a contribution to understand Amazonian biodiversity
4. The Stingless Honey Bees (Apidae, Apinae: Meliponini) in Panama, and Ecology from Pollen
5. The value of plants for the Mayan stingless honey bee Melipona beecheii (Apidae: Meliponini): a pollen-based study in the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico
6. Melittopalynological Studies of Stingless Bees from East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia
7. The Contribution of Palynological Surveys to Stingless Bee Conservation: a Case Study with Melipona subnitida
8. Pollen Storage by Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides in a Protected Urban Atlantic Forest Area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
9. Angiosperm Resources for Stingless Bees (Apidae, Meliponini): A Pot-Pollen Melittopalynological Study in the Gulf of Mexico
10. Annual Foraging Patterns of the Maya Bee Melipona beecheii (Bennett, 1831) in Quintana Roo, Mexico
11. Crop Pollination by Stingless Bees
12. Stingless Bees as Potential Pollinators in Agroecosystems in Argentina: Inferences from Pot-Pollen Studies in Natural Environments
SECTION 2 Biodiversity, Behavior and Microorganisms of the Stingless Bees (Meliponini)
13. Stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Meliponini) from Gabon
14. Pushing 100 Species: Meliponines (Apidae: Meliponini) in a Parcel of Western Amazonian Forest at Yasuní Biosphere Reserve, Ecuador
15. Diversity of Stingless Bees in Ecuador, Pot-Pollen Standards and Meliponiculture Fostering a Living Museum for Meliponini of the World
16. Nesting Ecology of Stingless Bees in Africa
17. On the Trophic Niche of Bees in Cerrado Areas of Brazil and Yeasts in their Stored Pollen
18. A Review of the Artificial Diets Used as Pot-Pollen Substitutes
19. Yeast and Bacterial Composition in Pot-Pollen Recovered from Meliponini in Colombia: Prospects for a Promising Biological Resource  
SECTION 3 Stingless Bees in Culture and Traditions
20. Cultural, Psychological and Organoleptic Factors Related to the Use of Stingless Bees by  Rural Residents of Northern Misiones, Argentina  
21. The Maya Universe in a Pollen Pot Native Stingless Bees in Precolumbian Maya Art
SECTION 4 Chemical Composition, Bioactivity and Biodiversity of Pot-Pollen
22. Nutritional Composition of Pot-Pollen from Four Species of Stingless Bees (Meliponini) in South East Asia
23. Characterization of Scaptotrigona mexicana Pot-Pollen from Veracruz, Mexico
24. Chemical Characterization and Bioactivity of Tetragonisca angustula Pot-Pollen from Mérida, Venezuela
25. Chemical, Microbiological and Palynological composition of the 'Samburá' Melipona scutellaris Pot-Pollen
26. Characterization of Pot-Pollen from Southern Venezuela
27. Bioactivity and Botanical Origin of Austroplebeia and Tetragonula Australian Pot-Pollen
28. Antibacterial Activity of Ethanolic Extracts of Pot-Pollen from Eight Meliponine Species from Venezuela
29. Metabolomics of Pot-Pollen from Three Species of Australian Stingless Bees (Meliponini)
SECTION 6 Marketing and Standards of Pot-Pollen
30. Rural-Urban Meliponiculture and Ecosystems in Neotropical areas. Scaptotrigona, a Resilient Stingless Bee?
31. Pot-Pollen "Samburá" Marketing in Brazil, and Suggested Legisation
APPENDIX A Ethnic Names of Stingless Bees
APPENDIX B Microorganisms Associated with Stingless Bees or Used to Test Antimicrobial Activity (AM)
APPENDIX C Taxonomic Index of Bees
APPENDIX D List of Bee Taxa
APPENDIX E Taxonomic Index of Plant Families
APPENDIX F Microorganisms Associated to Stingless Bees or Used to Test Antimicrobial Activity
INDEX.