Source: NCSU COLLEGE OF AG & LIFE SCIENCES, 6/13/22


North Carolina State University researchers show that the shape of flowers has the biggest effect on how parasites are transmitted to bees, an important consideration for declining populations of our prodigious pollinators. The findings could help stakeholders plant flowers that are less likely to spread parasites in pollinator habitats.

The researchers examined the common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) and a gut parasite called Crithidia bombi to study how floral traits – like the size and shape of flowers or number of flowers – played roles in three steps that lead to parasite transmission to bees on flowers: fecal deposition on flowers, parasite survival on flowers, and acquisition of the parasite by a new bee host. Parasite spread has been implicated as a major driver of bee population decline.

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