ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2015
Parasites in bloom: flowers aid dispersal and transmission of pollinator parasites within and between bee species.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 143 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
143 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review of honey bee (Apis mellifera, Linnaeus, 1758) infections and available treatment options.Veterinary medicine and science · 2023Pooled it
- Animal gut microbes and microbiomes in the 21st century and beyond.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Review
- Tracking Microbiome Composition and Stability Across Indian Social Honeybees Foraging in a Homogeneous Mustard Crop Landscape.Microbial ecology · 2026Article
- Pollinator Visitation Alters Cranberry Flower Fungal Communities in Wisconsin Cranberry Agroecosystems.Environmental microbiology reports · 2026Article
- Infestation by Phorid Flies Disrupts Behavior and Immune Function in Honey Bees Monitored by Radio-frequency Identification.Neotropical entomology · 2026Article
- The GenusInsects · 2026Review
- Microbiota and horizontal microbial transmission dynamics associated with bramble (Rubus spp.) flowers.Environmental microbiome · 2026Article
- Floral scent chemodiversity is associated with high floral visitor but low bacterial richness on flowers.The New phytologist · 2025Article
- Vector Potential ofInsects · 2025Article
- How Population Structure and Nest Membership Shape Pathogen Patterns in Bumble Bees.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Friend or foe? Concentration of a commensal microbe induces distinct responses in developing honey bees exposed to field-realistic pesticide concentrations.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2025Article
- Microbial Evolution in Allodapine Bees: Perspectives From Trophallactic, Socially Plastic Pollinators.Evolutionary applications · 2025Review
- Solitary Bees Acquire and Deposit Bacteria via Flowers: Testing the Environmental Transmission Hypothesis UsingEcology and evolution · 2025Article
- Microsporidian parasite impairs colony fitness in bumblebees.Open biology · 2025Article
- Avoiding the tragedies of parasite tolerance in Darwinian beekeeping.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Review
- The Role of Pathogens in Bumblebee Decline: A Review.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- The trypanosomatid (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae) parasites in bees: A review on their environmental circulation, impacts and implications.Current research in insect science · 2025Review
- Distinct virulence of the microsporidian parasite in honey bees competing habitat.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Article
- Article
- Urbanization Shifts Immunometabolism in a Common Bumblebee.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
83 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The dispersal of parasites is critical for epidemiology, and the interspecific vectoring of parasites when species share resources may play an underappreciated role in parasite dispersal. One of the best examples of such a situation is the shared use of flowers by pollinators, but the importance of flowers and interspecific vectoring in the dispersal of pollinator parasites is poorly understood and frequently overlooked. Here, we use an experimental approach to show that during even short foraging periods of 3 h, three bumblebee parasites and two honeybee parasites were dispersed effectively onto flowers by their hosts, and then vectored readily between flowers by non-host pollinator species. The results suggest that flowers are likely to be hotspots for the transmission of pollinator parasites and that considering potential vector, as well as host, species will be of general importance for understanding the distribution and transmission of parasites in the environment and between pollinators.
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