Imidacloprid Movement into Fungal Conidia Is Lethal to Mycophagous Beetles.

ABSTRACT: Applications of systemic pesticides can have unexpected direct and indirect effects on nontarget organisms, producing ecosystem-level impacts. We investigated whether a systemic insecticide (imidacloprid) could be absorbed by a plant pathogenic fungus infecting treated plants and whether the absorbed levels were high enough to have detrimental effects on the survival of a mycophagous beetle. Beetle larvae fed on these fungi were used to assess the survival effects of powdery mildew and imidacloprid in a factorial design. Fungal conidia were collected from treated and untreated plants and were tested for the presence and concentration of imidacloprid. The survival of beetles fed powdery mildew from imidacloprid-treated leaves was significantly lower than that of the beetles from all other t

SUBMITTER: Choudhury RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7469163 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature