We present here the results of an electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) study in scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) on boron nitride nanotubes (BN-NTs). The low and core-loss regions have been analyzed to provide by the same technique a combined information about chemical bonding in the different materials in the sample and the electronic properties of individual BN-NTs. In particular, we deduce an optical gap value of about 5.8 eV for single walled nanotubes, which is independent on diameter
