Review paper
Sublethal effects of neonicotinoids on insect pests
Ullah, Farman; Güncan, Ali; Abbas, Arzlan; Gul, Hina; Guedes, Raul Narciso C.; Zhang, Zhijun; Huang, Jun; Khan, Khalid Ali; Ghramh, Hamed A.; Chavarín-Gómez, Luis Enríque; Ramirez-Romero, Ricardo; Li, Xiaowei; Desneux, Nicolas; Lu, Yaobin
Entomologia Generalis Volume 44 Number 5 (2024), p. 1145 - 1160
published: Nov 29, 2024
published online: Nov 13, 2024
manuscript accepted: Sep 3, 2024
manuscript revision received: Aug 23, 2024
manuscript revision requested: Jul 25, 2024
manuscript received: May 16, 2024
DOI: 10.1127/entomologia/2024/2730
Open Access (paper may be downloaded free of charge)
Abstract
Insecticides are currently the most cost-effective tools for quickly and effectively managing insect pest populations. Among these, neonicotinoids have been widely used worldwide. However, the abiotic and biotic factors may produce spatiotemporal concentration changes that ultimately affect the intended doses/concentrations. These altered concentrations/doses led to resistance development in target pests and reduction of natural enemies and polluted the ecosystem. Therefore, in addition to direct mortality induced by neonicotinoids, their sublethal effects on target insect pests must be considered to understand their overall impact. These sublethal effects might disrupt critical biological traits of insect pests that survive insecticide exposure, ultimately translating into an increased or decreased population growth. An increasing number of studies on the sublethal effects of neonicotinoids on target insect pests have been published, which we reviewed in the present work, concentrating on crucial economically important pest species. In addition to enumerating the various effects documented in the literature, our analysis revealed that the most extensively studied neonicotinoid is imidacloprid, followed by thiamethoxam and dinotefuran. The parameters most thoroughly examined include longevity, fecundity, and the net reproductive rate (R 0), while nymphal survival, pre-oviposition period, population growth, and demographic parameters have received comparatively less attention. Alongside identifying these knowledge gaps, we propose research avenues essential for a more comprehensive understanding of the sublethal effects of these insecticides.
Keywords
Insecticide • pesticide • hormesis • physiological effects • behavioral effects • imidacloprid • thiamethoxam • acetamiprid • nitenpyram • thiacloprid