ArticleJournal of insect science (Online)2019
Floral Traits Predict Frequency of Defecation on Flowers by Foraging Bumble Bees.
Article in Journal of insect science (Online), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Plant-pollinator interactions and floral and nectar traits shape the diversity of the nectar mycobiome.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Drivers of Viral Prevalence in Landscape-Scale Pollinator Networks Across Europe: Honey Bee Viral Density, Niche Overlap With This Reservoir Host and Network Architecture.Ecology letters · 2026Article
- Honeybee visitation to shared flowers increasesEcology and evolution · 2023Article
- Sunflower plantings reduce a common gut pathogen and increase queen production in common eastern bumblebee colonies.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Manipulation of multiple floral traits demonstrates role in pollinator disease transmission.Ecology · 2023Article
- Article
- Flower sharing and pollinator health: a behavioural perspective.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
- The threat of pesticide and disease co-exposure to managed and wild bee larvae.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2022Review
- Experimental cross species transmission of a major viral pathogen in bees is predominantly from honeybees to bumblebees.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- The pollen virome of wild plants and its association with variation in floral traits and land use.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Floral traits affecting the transmission of beneficial and pathogenic pollinator-associated microbes.Current opinion in insect science · 2021Review
- Bee Viruses: Routes of Infection in Hymenoptera.Frontiers in microbiology · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Flowers may become inoculated with pathogens that can infect bees and other critical pollinators, but the mechanisms of inoculation remain unclear. During foraging, bees may regurgitate or defecate directly onto flower parts, which could inoculate flowers with pollinator pathogens and lead to subsequent disease transmission to floral visitors. We tested if captive eastern bumble bees (Bombus impatiens) (Cresson) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) defecate on floral surfaces during foraging and if flower shape played a role in the probability of defecation and the quantity of feces deposited on floral surfaces. Captive Bombus impatiens were fed a solution of fluorescent dye and sucrose, then allowed to forage freely on flowers of a variety of shapes in a flight cage. Flowers were then examined under ultraviolet light for fluorescing fecal matter. We found that bumble bees did defecate on floral surfaces during foraging and that composite flowers with a large area of disk flowers were the most likely to have feces on them. Our results point to defecation by bumble bees during foraging as a potential mechanism for inoculation of flowers with pollinator pathogens and suggest that flower shape could play a significant role in inoculation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.