High Tolerance and Delayed Responses of to Neonicotinoid Insecticide Imidacloprid: Toxicokinetic and Toxicodynamic Modeling.

Species sensitivity to neonicotinoids has been shown to be highly variable among aquatic invertebrates. Toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic (TKTD) models were constructed to mechanistically elucidate the susceptibility of to imidacloprid. was highly tolerant to single short-term exposure to imidacloprid (96-h LC50 of 8.47 μg/mL), but delayed and carry-over toxicity occurred under repeated pulse exposures. Kinetic distribution of imidacloprid between exoskeleton and soft tissues of was evaluated using a newly developed method. Approximately 84% imidacloprid was distributed to soft tissues but was rapidly depurated from the tissue ( of 1.2 h), resulting in low bioaccumulation and high tolerance. TKTD modeling also successfully simulated the survival of after pulsed exposures. The calculated recovery time was 45 d, indicating significant delayed and carry-over toxicity of the insecticide. While complete elimination of imidacloprid only took about 5 h (TK), slow damage recovery (45 d) caused slow organism recovery (TD). Consequently, although was tolerant to imidacloprid due to fast depuration from soft tissue, long damage recovery time significantly enhanced the toxicity under repeated pulse exposures. Our study highlights the necessity of integrating delayed and carry-over toxicity quantification in assessing the risk of neonicotinoids to aquatic invertebrates.