Nesting biology and nest structure of the exotic bee .

From the 1990s, the Southeast Asia native giant resin bee (Smith, 1853) was introduced first to North America, and then to many countries in Europe. Despite increasing studies on its invasive potential and geographical expansion, information on nesting behaviour of this species is still extremely scarce. To increase knowledge on the nesting biology of , we studied multiple aspects of nesting and pollen provisioning in three consecutive years in artificial nests in Bologna, Italy.

The discrimination of honey origin using melissopalynology and Raman spectroscopy techniques coupled with multivariate analysis.

Honey traceability to food quality is required by consumers and food control institutions. Melissopalynologists traditionally use percentages of nectariferous pollens to discriminate the botanical origin and the entire pollen spectrum (presence/absence, type and quantities and association of some pollen types) to determinate the geographical origin of honeys. To improve melissopalynological routine analysis, principal components analysis (PCA) was used.