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Back to the future: Apis versus non-Apis pollination—a response to Ollerton et al.

2011; Elsevier BV; Volume: 27; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.tree.2011.11.017

1872-8383

Alexandre Aebi, Bernard Vaissière, Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Keith S. Delaplane, David W. Roubik, Peter Neumann,

Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior

Twenty years after the exchange between Sarah Corbet and Roger Morse in TREE considering the relative importance of pollinating honey bees, Apis mellifera, versus other species [ 1 Morse R.A. Honeybees forever. Trends Ecol. Evol. 1991; 6: 337-338 Abstract Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (26) Google Scholar ], this debate continues. Ollerton et al. [ 2 Ollerton J. et al. Overplaying the role of honey bees as pollinators: a comment on Aebi and Neumann (2011). Trends Ecol. Evol. 2012; 27: 141-142 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (65) Google Scholar ] disregarded the main issue of our article about endosymbionts [ 3 Aebi A. Neumann P. Endosymbionts and honey bee colony losses?. Trends Ecol. Evol. 2011; 26: 494 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (19) Google Scholar ], although pathogen prevalence can predict native bee decline [ 4 Cameron S.A. et al. Patterns of widespread decline in North American bumble bees. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2011; 108: 662-667 Crossref PubMed Scopus (1130) Google Scholar ] and endosymbionts may play a role [ 3 Aebi A. Neumann P. Endosymbionts and honey bee colony losses?. Trends Ecol. Evol. 2011; 26: 494 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (19) Google Scholar ]. Instead, they took issue with our first sentence because it extolled honey bees. We claimed honey bees are essential pollinators for crops and wild plants but Ollerton and colleagues maintained that 'By conflating problems in the honey bee industry with the much more acute conservation issue of losses of native pollinators, honey bee researchers do damage to the whole community of researchers working on bee biology and pollination more generally' [ 2 Ollerton J. et al. Overplaying the role of honey bees as pollinators: a comment on Aebi and Neumann (2011). Trends Ecol. Evol. 2012; 27: 141-142 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (65) Google Scholar ].