Farina Walter M, Balbuena M Sol, Herbert Lucila T, Mengoni Goñalons Carolina, Vázquez Diego E
Laboratorio de Insectos Sociales, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires 1428, Argentina.
Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE), Instituto de Fisiología, CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires 1428, Argentina.
Insects. 2019 Oct 18;10(10):354. doi: 10.3390/insects10100354.
The honeybee is an important pollinator in both undisturbed and agricultural ecosystems. Its great versatility as an experimental model makes it an excellent proxy to evaluate the environmental impact of agrochemicals using current methodologies and procedures in environmental toxicology. The increase in agrochemical use, including those that do not target insects directly, can have deleterious effects if carried out indiscriminately. This seems to be the case of the herbicide glyphosate (GLY), the most widely used agrochemical worldwide. Its presence in honey has been reported in samples obtained from different environments. Hence, to understand its current and potential risks for this pollinator it has become essential to not only study the effects on honeybee colonies located in agricultural settings, but also its effects under laboratory conditions. Subtle deleterious effects can be detected using experimental approaches. GLY negatively affects associative learning processes of foragers, cognitive and sensory abilities of young hive bees and promotes delays in brood development. An integrated approach that considers behavior, physiology, and development allows not only to determine the effects of this agrochemical on this eusocial insect from an experimental perspective, but also to infer putative effects in disturbed environments where it is omnipresent.
蜜蜂在未受干扰的生态系统和农业生态系统中都是重要的传粉者。它作为实验模型具有很强的通用性，使其成为使用环境毒理学当前方法和程序评估农用化学品环境影响的极佳替代物。农用化学品使用的增加，包括那些并非直接针对昆虫的化学品，如果不加区分地使用，可能会产生有害影响。全球使用最广泛的农用化学品除草剂草甘膦（GLY）似乎就是这种情况。在从不同环境中采集的样本中已报告蜂蜜中存在草甘膦。因此，为了解其对这种传粉者当前和潜在的风险，不仅要研究其对农业环境中蜜蜂群落的影响，还要研究其在实验室条件下的影响，这已变得至关重要。使用实验方法可以检测到细微的有害影响。草甘膦会对觅食者的联想学习过程、幼蜂的认知和感官能力产生负面影响，并会导致幼虫发育延迟。一种综合考虑行为、生理学和发育的方法不仅能够从实验角度确定这种农用化学品对这种群居昆虫的影响，还能推断其在普遍存在该化学品的受干扰环境中的假定影响。
