Floral Resources and Nesting Requirements of the Ground-Nesting Social Bee, Lasioglossum malachurum (Hymenoptera: Halictidae), in a Mediterranean Semiagricultural Landscape

In order to adopt correct conservation strike plans to maintain bee pollination activity it is necessary to know the species' resource utilisation and requirements. We investigated the floral resources and the nesting requirements of the eusocial beeLasioglossum malachurumKirby at various sites in a Mediterranean landscape. Analysis of bees' pollen loads showed that Compositae was the more exploited family, although interpopulations differences appeared in the pollen types used. From 5 to 7 pollen types were used by bees, but only as few as 1–1.9 per load. Variations of the pollen spectrum through the annual nesting cycle were conspicuous. At all sites, bees nested in horizontal ground areas with high soil hardness, low acidity, and rare superficial stones. On the other side, the exploited soil was variable in soil granulometry (although always high in % of silt or sand) and it was moderately variable in content of organic matter and highly variable in vegetation cover. Creation of ground patches with these characteristics in proximity of both cultivated and natural flowering fields may successfully promote colonization of new areas by this bee

Lasioglossum malachurum (Hymenoptera: Halictidae), in a Mediterranean Semiagricultural Landscape

In order to adopt correct conservation strike plans to maintain bee pollination activity it is necessary to know the species' resource utilisation and requirements. We investigated the floral resources and the nesting requirements of the eusocial bee Lasioglossum malachurum Kirby at various sites in a Mediterranean landscape. Analysis of bees' pollen loads showed that Compositae was the more exploited family, although interpopulations differences appeared in the pollen types used. From 5 to 7 pollen types were used by bees, but only as few as 1-1.9 per load. Variations of the pollen spectrum through the annual nesting cycle were conspicuous. At all sites, bees nested in horizontal ground areas with high soil hardness, low acidity, and rare superficial stones. On the other side, the exploited soil was variable in soil granulometry (although always high in % of silt or sand) and it was moderately variable in content of organic matter and highly variable in vegetation cover. Creation of ground patches with these characteristics in proximity of both cultivated and natural flowering fields may successfully promote colonization of new areas by this bee

I-READ 4.0: Internet-of-READers for an efficient asset management in large warehouses with high stock rotation index

The I-READ 4.0 project represents an integrated and autonomous Cyber Physical System, for automatic management of very large warehouses with high-stock rotation index. Thanks to an internet of UHF-RFID readers, both fixed and mobile, it is possible to implement an efficient management of assets and forklifts operating in indoor scenario. The proposed solution can be employed independently on the warehouse sizes, the good types and the spatial resolution required for item localization by virtue of its low-cost, reconfigurability and scalability. The I-READ 4.0 system allows also to increase the safety levels of the human operators within the warehouse