James Laura, Reynolds Andrew M, Mellor Ian R, Davies T G Emyr
Protecting Crops and the Environment, Rothamsted Research, West Common, Harpenden AL5 2JQ, UK.
Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK.
Toxics. 2023 Mar 18;11(3):279. doi: 10.3390/toxics11030279.
Pesticide exposure has been cited as a key threat to insect pollinators. Notably, a diverse range of potential sublethal effects have been reported in bee species, with a particular focus on effects due to exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides. Here, a purpose-built thermal-visual arena was used in a series of pilot experiments to assess the potential impact of approximate sublethal concentrations of the next generation sulfoximine insecticide sulfoxaflor (5 and 50 ppb) and the neonicotinoid insecticides thiacloprid (500 ppb) and thiamethoxam (10 ppb), on the walking trajectory, navigation and learning abilities of the buff-tailed bumblebee () when subjected to an aversive conditioning task. The results suggest that only thiamethoxam prevents forager bees from improving in key training parameters (speed and distanced travelled) within the thermal visual arena. Power law analyses further revealed that a speed-curvature power law, previously reported as being present in the walking trajectories of bumblebees, is potentially disrupted under thiamethoxam (10 ppb) exposure, but not under sulfoxaflor or thiacloprid exposure. The pilot assay described provides a novel tool with which to identify subtle sublethal pesticide impacts, and their potential causes, on forager bees, that current ecotoxicological tests are not designed to assess.
农药暴露被认为是昆虫传粉者面临的一个关键威胁。值得注意的是，在蜜蜂物种中已报道了多种潜在的亚致死效应，尤其关注因接触新烟碱类杀虫剂而产生的影响。在此，在一系列先导实验中使用了一个专门建造的热视觉竞技场，以评估下一代亚砜亚胺类杀虫剂氟啶虫胺腈（5和50 ppb）以及新烟碱类杀虫剂噻虫啉（500 ppb）和噻虫嗪（10 ppb）的近似亚致死浓度，对 buff-tailed bumblebee（）在进行厌恶条件任务时的行走轨迹、导航和学习能力的潜在影响。结果表明，只有噻虫嗪会阻止觅食蜜蜂在热视觉竞技场内关键训练参数（速度和行进距离）上取得进步。幂律分析进一步表明，先前报道存在于大黄蜂行走轨迹中的速度 - 曲率幂律，在暴露于噻虫嗪（10 ppb）时可能会受到干扰，但在暴露于氟啶虫胺腈或噻虫啉时不会。所描述的先导试验提供了一种新工具，可用于识别对觅食蜜蜂的细微亚致死农药影响及其潜在原因，而当前的生态毒理学测试并非旨在评估这些影响。
