Zhang Jie, Huang Peng, Pan Yufang, Zhao Yi, Yao Jinai, Yu Deyi
Fujian Key Laboratory for Monitoring and Integrated Management of Crop Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Fujian Engineering Research Center for Green Pest Management, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou, 350013, China.
College of Tea and Food Science, Wuyi University, Wuyishan, 354300, China.
Sci Rep. 2025 Aug 3;15(1):28316. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-14031-x.
Systemic insecticides are widely used to control sap-feeding pests, and their risks for natural enemies have become well-assessed in the past decades. However, most of these risk assessments focused on the direct effects when natural enemies come in contact with the sprayed leaves or forge contaminated prey. Consequently, the indirect impacts of systemic insecticides on regulating plant volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and how do these affect natural enemies have been overlooked. In the current study, we examined the indirect impact of imidacloprid soil drenches on prey selection behavior and functional response of the ladybird Propylea japonica. Our findings demonstrated that systemically applied insecticides could negatively affect natural enemy behaviors by disturbing VOCs emitted from plants. Compared with those exposed to fresh air and VOCs emitted from water-treated plants, P. japonica adults exposed to VOCs emitted from imidacloprid-treated plants were less chosen, and their attack rate (a) and handling times (h) markedly decreased, which potentially weaken biological control service. Meanwhile, we also found Frankliniella intonsa was less frequently chosen for imidacloprid-treated plants. Therefore, utilizing systemic imidacloprid to control pests needs to be cautiously considered when integrated pest management strategies are set up.
内吸性杀虫剂被广泛用于防治吸食汁液的害虫，在过去几十年里，其对天敌的风险已得到充分评估。然而，这些风险评估大多集中在天敌接触喷洒过的叶片或捕食受污染猎物时的直接影响。因此，内吸性杀虫剂对植物挥发性有机化合物（VOCs）调节的间接影响以及这些影响如何作用于天敌一直被忽视。在本研究中，我们研究了吡虫啉土壤浇灌对瓢虫龟纹瓢虫捕食选择行为和功能反应的间接影响。我们的研究结果表明，内吸性施用的杀虫剂会通过干扰植物释放的挥发性有机化合物对天敌行为产生负面影响。与暴露于新鲜空气和经水处理的植物释放的挥发性有机化合物的龟纹瓢虫相比，暴露于经吡虫啉处理的植物释放的挥发性有机化合物的龟纹瓢虫成虫被选择的次数更少，其攻击率（a）和处理时间（h）显著降低，这可能会削弱生物防治效果。同时，我们还发现西花蓟马较少被吸引到经吡虫啉处理的植物上。因此，在制定害虫综合治理策略时，需要谨慎考虑使用内吸性吡虫啉来控制害虫。
