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Flowers may endanger bees, serve as parasite hubs
Flowers can pose a grave danger to bees by proving to be a platform for parasites that would infect visiting bees, new research has found. \"Flowers are hotspots for parasite spread between and within pollinator populations,\" said the study\'s first author Peter Graystock, a post-doctoral researcher at University of California, Riverside.
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New York: Flowers can pose a grave danger to bees by proving to be a platform for parasites that would infect visiting bees, new research has found. "Flowers are hotspots for parasite spread between and within pollinator populations," said the study's first author Peter Graystock, a post-doctoral researcher at University of California, Riverside.
"Both the flower and bee species play a role in how likely parasite dispersal will occur," Graystock noted. The study showed that not only can bees disperse parasites around the environment but also that flowers are platforms for a host of pollinator parasites subsequently dispersed onto visiting bees.
The researchers found four common honey bee and bumblebee parasites to be dispersed via flowers: Nosema apis (causes a honey bee disease), Nosema ceranae (causes an emergent disease in honey bees and bumblebees), Crithidia bombi (causes a bumblebee disease) and Apicystis bombi (mostly found in bumblebees). These parasites are known to cause lethargy, dysentery, colony collapse, and queen death in heavily-infected bees.
