The black pod disease pathogens affect all cocoa trees all over the world "P. capsici" and "P. citrophthora" are found in Central and South America while others such as "P. megakarya" is found in Central and Western Africa. All of these pathogens can present themselves in all parts of the cocoa trees but are most devastating in the fruit itself where it will turn the fruit to a black mummified casing. This fruit is then useless and can no longer be used. "P. megakarya" is found in Central and Western Africa. During the cooler wetter times of the year, there is a spike in the incidents of black pod disease as when compared to the hotter more dry times of the year. The disease has a spike shortly after a rainfall. The humid weather that is associated with this pathogen and all other black pod disease pathogens is needed as the sporangia forms and starts distributing spores through rainfall, splashing water, and running water. With this pathogen spreading behavior needing water is why there is almost always a spike in the prevalence of the disease shortly after the rainy season. The spread of infection to pods above bare soil was shown to be greater relative to pods above litter. The reason for this is due to the splash of rain from bare soil spreads the inoculum to pods. However, litter under the tree prevented water droplets from splashing the soil particles as well as the inoculum beneath the litter to the above pods. Further, it was also reported that pods near the ground showed greater infections compared to higher pods due to greater soil was splashed and stick on the lower pods, therefore causes more infections. The spread of spores through air from infected pods was observed and some assumption regarding this mechanism of dispersion has been made in previous studies, however it is remained uncertain due to unconvincing results from an experiment that collected some spores in the air using the volumetric spore trap, where a small amount of spores were found in the trap. Conversely, the dispersal of inoculum via rain is considered an effective mechanism in spreading the inoculum. It was assumed that under close canopy, less water will reach the sporulating pods to spread the inoculum, however, rain drops from leaves and branches could also splash the inoculum to the surroundings. Infected pods laying on the ground or litter could also spread the inoculum, yet greater infection was observed on pods located under infected pods hanging on the tree compared to pods at the same level of infected pods. It was reported that splash of wind-blown droplets from the infected pods are also able to infect pods on different trees nearby  The dispersal of the disease is also associated with the invertebrate vectors.