Many different pollinators often visit the same flower, as seen in this image where a buff-tailed bumble bee (Bombus terrestris), a red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) and a small sweat bee (Lasioglossum sp.) are sharing a plume thistle Cirsium rivulare flower. On pages 623-636, Willem Proesmans and colleagues discuss how sharing of flowers in this way is a potential conduit for insect pathogens. Pathogen dynamics are shaped by both the plant-pollinator network and species traits, and will be affected by global change.
Photo credit: Hajnalka Szentgyörgyi
