Neonicotinoid insecticides can pose a severe threat to grassland plant bug communities
Abstract Although pesticides have been proposed as one of the main causes of insect decline, there are still few studies assessing their effects on non-target species under field conditions. Here we investigated the effects of the neonicotinoid insecticide Mospilan®SG (active ingredient acetamiprid)...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Communications Earth & Environment |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02065-y |
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| author | Jan Erik Sedlmeier Ingo Grass Prasanth Bendalam Birgit Höglinger Frank Walker Daniel Gerhard Hans-Peter Piepho Carsten A. Brühl Georg Petschenka |
| author_facet | Jan Erik Sedlmeier Ingo Grass Prasanth Bendalam Birgit Höglinger Frank Walker Daniel Gerhard Hans-Peter Piepho Carsten A. Brühl Georg Petschenka |
| author_sort | Jan Erik Sedlmeier |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Although pesticides have been proposed as one of the main causes of insect decline, there are still few studies assessing their effects on non-target species under field conditions. Here we investigated the effects of the neonicotinoid insecticide Mospilan®SG (active ingredient acetamiprid) on plant bugs (Heteroptera: Miridae), a dominant group of European grassland insect communities. In a controlled field study, the abundance of three focal species was reduced by up to 92% two days after field exposure at concentrations expected at field margins, with mortality varying among species. Follow-up feeding assays with insecticide-treated host plants in the greenhouse and controlled dose-response laboratory assays confirmed the strong negative effects on non-target species. Strikingly, when comparing the lethal dose 50 derived from Mospilan®SG with a value reported for honeybees using another acetamiprid formulation, the insecticide was over 11,000 times more toxic to plant bugs than to honeybees. In addition, males were 20 times more sensitive than females in the two tested species. Thus, continuous exposure to this neonicotinoid may reduce plant bug populations and promote insecticide-tolerant species, altering community composition. We suggest that sex-specific sensitivity be considered in risk assessment and conclude that the true risk to non-target insects is currently greatly underestimated. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-417ac435a1944bb7b8042d81aec7b06d |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2662-4435 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communications Earth & Environment |
| spelling | doaj-art-417ac435a1944bb7b8042d81aec7b06d2025-08-20T03:04:53ZengNature PortfolioCommunications Earth & Environment2662-44352025-03-016111210.1038/s43247-025-02065-yNeonicotinoid insecticides can pose a severe threat to grassland plant bug communitiesJan Erik Sedlmeier0Ingo Grass1Prasanth Bendalam2Birgit Höglinger3Frank Walker4Daniel Gerhard5Hans-Peter Piepho6Carsten A. Brühl7Georg Petschenka8Department of Applied Entomology, University of HohenheimDepartment of Ecology of Tropical Agricultural Systems, University of HohenheimDepartment of Applied Entomology, University of HohenheimInstitute of Phytomedicine, University of HohenheimInstitute of Phytomedicine, University of HohenheimSchool of Mathematics and Statistics, University of CanterburyDepartment of Biostatistics, University of HohenheimDepartment of Community Ecology & Ecotoxicology, Rhineland-Palatinate University of Technology Kaiserslautern-LandauDepartment of Applied Entomology, University of HohenheimAbstract Although pesticides have been proposed as one of the main causes of insect decline, there are still few studies assessing their effects on non-target species under field conditions. Here we investigated the effects of the neonicotinoid insecticide Mospilan®SG (active ingredient acetamiprid) on plant bugs (Heteroptera: Miridae), a dominant group of European grassland insect communities. In a controlled field study, the abundance of three focal species was reduced by up to 92% two days after field exposure at concentrations expected at field margins, with mortality varying among species. Follow-up feeding assays with insecticide-treated host plants in the greenhouse and controlled dose-response laboratory assays confirmed the strong negative effects on non-target species. Strikingly, when comparing the lethal dose 50 derived from Mospilan®SG with a value reported for honeybees using another acetamiprid formulation, the insecticide was over 11,000 times more toxic to plant bugs than to honeybees. In addition, males were 20 times more sensitive than females in the two tested species. Thus, continuous exposure to this neonicotinoid may reduce plant bug populations and promote insecticide-tolerant species, altering community composition. We suggest that sex-specific sensitivity be considered in risk assessment and conclude that the true risk to non-target insects is currently greatly underestimated.https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02065-y |
| spellingShingle | Jan Erik Sedlmeier Ingo Grass Prasanth Bendalam Birgit Höglinger Frank Walker Daniel Gerhard Hans-Peter Piepho Carsten A. Brühl Georg Petschenka Neonicotinoid insecticides can pose a severe threat to grassland plant bug communities Communications Earth & Environment |
| title | Neonicotinoid insecticides can pose a severe threat to grassland plant bug communities |
| title_full | Neonicotinoid insecticides can pose a severe threat to grassland plant bug communities |
| title_fullStr | Neonicotinoid insecticides can pose a severe threat to grassland plant bug communities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Neonicotinoid insecticides can pose a severe threat to grassland plant bug communities |
| title_short | Neonicotinoid insecticides can pose a severe threat to grassland plant bug communities |
| title_sort | neonicotinoid insecticides can pose a severe threat to grassland plant bug communities |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02065-y |
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