Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, 2415 Speedway, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.
Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, 2415 Speedway, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.
Environ Pollut. 2022 Aug 15;307:119575. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119575. Epub 2022 Jun 9.
Bees are vital pollinators of crops and wildflowers and as such, wild bee declines threaten food security and functioning ecosystems. One driver of bee declines is the use of systemic insecticides, such as commonly used neonicotinoids. However, rising pest resistance to neonicotinoids, and restrictions on their use in the EU, has increased the demand for replacement insecticides to control crop pests. Flupyradifurone is a novel systemic insecticide that is thought to be relatively 'bee safe' although it can be present in the nectar and pollen of bee-attractive crops. Bumblebees rely on learning to forage efficiently, and thus detriments to learning performance may have downstream consequences on their ability to forage. While neonicotinoids negatively influence bumblebee learning and memory, whether this is also the case for their replacements is unclear. Here, we exposed bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) to an acute, field-realistic dose of flupyradifurone before training them to learn either an olfactory or colour association. We found that flupyradifurone impaired bumblebees' learning and memory performance in both olfactory and visual modalities. Flupyradifurone-treated bees were also less motivated to feed. Given the similarity between the detriments to cognition found here and those previously reported for neonicotinoids, this implies that these insecticides may have similar sub-lethal effects on bees. Restrictions on neonicotinoid use are therefore unlikely to benefit bees if novel insecticides like flupyradifurone are used as an alternative, highlighting that current agrochemical risk assessments are not protecting bees from the unwanted consequences of pesticide use. Sub-lethal assessments on non-Apis bees should be made mandatory in agrochemical regulation to ensure that novel insecticides are indeed 'bee safe'.
蜜蜂是农作物和野花的重要传粉媒介，因此，野生蜜蜂数量的减少威胁着粮食安全和生态系统的正常运转。导致蜜蜂数量减少的一个原因是使用了内吸性杀虫剂，如常用的新烟碱类杀虫剂。然而，害虫对新烟碱类杀虫剂的抗药性不断增强，以及欧盟对其使用的限制，增加了人们对替代杀虫剂的需求，以控制作物害虫。氟吡呋喃酮是一种新型的内吸性杀虫剂，被认为对蜜蜂相对“安全”，尽管它可能存在于对蜜蜂有吸引力的作物的花蜜和花粉中。熊蜂依赖于学习来高效觅食，因此，学习能力的损害可能会对它们觅食的能力产生下游影响。虽然新烟碱类杀虫剂会对熊蜂的学习和记忆能力产生负面影响，但它们的替代品是否也是如此尚不清楚。在这里，我们在训练熊蜂（Bombus impatiens）学习嗅觉或颜色关联之前，用急性、田间现实剂量的氟吡呋喃酮对其进行了处理。我们发现，氟吡呋喃酮损害了熊蜂在嗅觉和视觉两种模式下的学习和记忆能力。氟吡呋喃酮处理过的蜜蜂也不太愿意进食。鉴于这里发现的认知损害与先前报道的新烟碱类杀虫剂相似，这意味着这些杀虫剂可能对蜜蜂产生类似的亚致死效应。如果像氟吡呋喃酮这样的新型杀虫剂被用作替代品，那么限制新烟碱类杀虫剂的使用不太可能使蜜蜂受益，这表明当前的农用化学品风险评估并没有使蜜蜂免受农药使用带来的不良后果。在农用化学品法规中，应该强制对非 Apis 蜜蜂进行亚致死评估，以确保新型杀虫剂确实“对蜜蜂安全”。
