DOI: 10.5061/dryad.59zw3r2p0
title: Data for: Sunflower pollen diets reduce infection in closely related bumble bee species

description: Parasite growth and infection success are often influenced by host diet.
 Consuming sunflower pollen (Helianthus annuus) dramatically reduces
 infection by the trypanosomatid gut parasite Crithidia in the model bumble
 bee species Bombus impatiens, as well as two of its relatives in the
 subgenus Pyrobombus. However, only five Bombus species out of 265 species
 globally have been assessed, making results difficult to generalize. We
 examined how consuming sunflower pollen affects Crithidia infection in two
 previously untested species of bumble bees in the subgenus Pyrobombus,
 Bombus perplexus and Bombus ternarius, compared to wild-caught B.
 impatiens. Infected bees were fed either monofloral sunflower pollen, or
 monofloral buckwheat pollen (Fagopyrum esculentum) as a control for seven
 days, after which we counted the number of Crithidia cells in the gut and
 compared infection intensity between buckwheat and sunflower diets in
 these three species, while also examining how much of each diet they
 consumed, and the amount of sucrose solution they consumed. We found that
 sunflower pollen significantly reduced Crithidia infection in B.
 impatiens, with comparable significant effects in B. perplexus and B.
 ternarius. None of these effects were influenced by the quantity of pollen
 or sucrose consumed. These results demonstrate that, at least for its
 close relatives, B. impatiens is a good model species for understanding
 the effects of diet on host interactions with a common gut parasite.
description: # Data for: Sunflower pollen diets reduce infection in closely related
 bumble bee species Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.59zw3r2p0](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.59zw3r2p0) ##
 Description of the data and file structure Collated data of exposing three
 bumble bees to Crithidia bombi and feeding sunflower or buckwheat pollen,
 and quantifying parasite. ### File: PyrobombusS23_master_ECM.csv
 **Description:** Infection intensity data for three bumble bee species. NA
 values indicate "not applicable".  #### Variables * species:
 Bumble bee species epithet used. * ID: Bee individual identification
 number. * colony_ID: Name of the bumble bee colony the individual was
 pulled from. * treatment: Pollen diet treatment of buckwheat (BW) or
 sunflower (SF). * inoc_date: Date bee was inoculated with Crithidia bombi
 * dissect_date: Date bees were dissected to count Crithidia bombi *
 death_yn: Death record for bees. 1 = bee died, NA = bee lived * deathdate:
 Date bees died. * crit_count: Crithidia bombi count in 0.02ul of gut
 homogenate * crit_source: The bumble bee colony the Crithidia bombi was
 sourced from. * wings_cm: Wing measurements in cm taken in ImageJ as a
 proxy for body size. * wing_mm: Wing measurements converted to mm used as
 a proxy for body size. ### File: PyrobombusS23_mastercons_ECM.csv
 **Description:** Consumption data for pollen and sucrose diets for three
 bumble bee species.  #### Variables * species: Bumble bee species epithet
 used. * ID: Bee individual identification number. * colony_ID: Name of the
 bumble bee colony the individual was pulled from. * treatment: Pollen diet
 treatment of buckwheat (BW) or sunflower (SF). * pol_bef_date: Date
 initial pollen weight was taken * pol_bef_time: Time initial pollen weight
 was taken * pol_bef_weight_g: Initial pollen weight in grams *
 pol_aft_date: Date final pollen weight was taken * pol_aft_time: Time
 final pollen weight was taken * pol_aft_weight_g: Final pollen weight *
 suc_bef_date: Date initial sucrose weight was taken * suc_bef_time: Time
 initial sucrose weight was taken * bef_weight_g: Initial sucrose weight in
 grams * suc_aft_date: Date final sucrose weight was taken * suc_aft_time:
 Time final sucrose weight was taken * suc_aft_weight_g: Final sucrose
 weight in grams * Net_pollen: Total pollen consumed in grams *
 Net_sucrose: Total sucrose consumed in grams ### File:
 PyrobombusS23_masterevap_ECM.csv **Description:** Evaporation data to
 account for how much liquid evaporated from diets to measure true
 consumption. #### Variables * ID: Pollen and sucrose control ID *
 treatment: Pollen diet treatment of buckwheat (BW) or sunflower (SF). *
 pol_bef_date: Date initial pollen weight was taken * pol_bef_time: Time
 initial pollen weight was taken * pol_bef_weight_g: Initial pollen weight
 in grams * pol_aft_date: Date final pollen weight was taken *
 pol_aft_time: Time final pollen weight was taken * pol_aft_weight_g: Final
 pollen weight * suc_bef_date: Date initial sucrose weight was taken *
 suc_bef_time: Time initial sucrose weight was taken * bef_weight_g:
 Initial sucrose weight in grams * suc_aft_date: Date final sucrose weight
 was taken * suc_aft_time: Time final sucrose weight was taken *
 suc_aft_weight_g: Final sucrose weight in grams * Net_pollen: Total pollen
 evaporated in grams * Net_sucrose: Total sucrose evaporated in grams ####
 File: PyrobombusFinalS23ECM.R **Description:** R script for statistical
 analysis of this experiment. ## Code/software These data were analyzed in
 R version 4.2.3 “Shortstop Beagle” for Windows. The packages used were:
 lattice, psych, car, AER, MASS, corrplot, AICmodavg, dplyr, tidyr, lme4,
 mgcv, scatterplot3d, bbmle, emmeans, ggplot2, tidyverse, ggalt, multcomp,
 DHARMa, fitdistrplus, agricolae, glmmTMB, pscl, effectsize, and ggsignif.
 The script for all analyses is included with this code,
 PyrobombusS23FinalECM.R. It is annotated to explain my rationale
 throughout the analysis.