Larval exposure to the neonicotinoid imidacloprid impacts adult size in the farmland butterfly Pieris brassicae.

ABSTRACT: Populations of farmland butterflies have been suffering from substantial population declines in recent decades. These declines have been correlated with neonicotinoid usage both in Europe and North America but experimental evidence linking these correlations is lacking. The potential for non-target butterflies to be exposed to trace levels of neonicotinoids is high, due to the widespread contamination of agricultural soils and wild plants in field margins. Here we provide experimental evidence that field realistic, sub-lethal exposure to the neonicotinoid imidacloprid negatively impacts the development of the common farmland butterfly Pieris brassicae. Cabbage plants were watered with either 0, 1, 10, 100 or 200 parts per billion imidacloprid, to represent field margin plants growing in co

SUBMITTER: Whitehorn PR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5961621 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature