Plant species composition and infection in bumble bees

Researchers examine links between flowering strips and disease in bumble bee colonies. Pollinators, which are essential to food security, are threatened by pathogens. Flowering strips and hedgerows are used to increase pollinator abundance and diversity, but the link between plant species composition and disease in bumble bees remains unclear. Using canola crops and the protozoan gut parasite Crithidia bombi, Lynn Adler and colleagues compared how flowering strips with known high-infection and low-infection plant species influenced infection and reproduction in colonies of Bombus impatiens. Between June 3, 2015 and August 27, 2015 in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, microcolonies of 15 bumble bees each inhabited tents with canola and a flowering strip containing high-infection plants, tents with canola and a flowering strip containing low-infection plants, or tents containing no flowering strips and canola alone. After 2 weeks, bees exposed to high-infection plants had approximately twice the infection intensity as bees exposed to low-infection plants. However, bee reproduction increased with exposure to flowering strips with either high-infection or low-infection plants, compared with exposure to canola alone. The results suggest that flowering strips provide essential food resources for bumble bees, but certain plant species may increase pathogen infection intensity in colonies, according to the authors.

Article #20-00074: “Flowering plant composition shapes pathogen infection intensity and reproduction in bumble bee colonies,” by Lynn S. Adler, Nicholas A. Barber, Olivia M. Biller, and Rebecca E. Irwin.

MEDIA CONTACT: Lynn S. Adler, University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA; tel: 413-362-9158, email:

[email protected]

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