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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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Your Environment. Your Health.

Publication Detail

Title: Impact of aquatic insect life stage and emergence strategy on sensitivity to esfenvalerate exposure.

Authors: Palmquist, Katherine R; Jepson, Paul C; Jenkins, Jeffrey J

Published In Environ Toxicol Chem, (2008 Aug)

Abstract: We investigated the impact of aquatic insect life stage and emergence strategy on sensitivity to esfenvalerate, a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide, using field-collected Brachycentrus americanus Banks (Trichoptera: Brachycentridae) and Cinygmula reticulata McDunnough (Ephemeroptera: Heptageniidae) insects. Final-instar C. reticulata emergence was observed for one week following three environmentally relevant, 48-h esfenvalerate exposures (0.005, 0.01, and 0.015 microg/L). Emergence was significantly depressed following exposure to esfenvalerate and resulted from an increase in nymph mortality during the emergence process. This experiment was duplicated for late-instar C. reticulata nymphs, which were similar in size to the final-instar nymphs but were not near emergence. Late-instar C. reticulata mayflies were approximately fivefold less sensitive to esfenvalerate exposures as gauged by one-week mortality rates. Brachycentrus americanus pupal mortality was significantly increased over that in controls following 48-h esfenvalerate exposures of 0.1 and 0.2 microg/L. These response concentrations correlated closely with those for case-abandonment rates of fourth-instar B. americanus larvae (a sublethal effect of esfenvalerate exposure). Pupal mortality rates were approximately 16-fold higher than those observed in larvae. Adult female egg weight as a percentage of total body weight was significantly decreased following pupal esfenvalerate exposures of 0.05, 0.1, and 0.2 microg/L. These findings suggest that exposure to esfenvalerate may impair hemimetabolous insect emergence behaviors and may decrease fecundity in holometabolous aquatic insects.

PubMed ID: 18616381 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: Animals; Biological Assay; Body Size; Body Weight; Diet; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Female; Insecta; Insecticides/toxicity; Larva/drug effects*; Nitriles/toxicity*; Nymph/drug effects*; Pyrethrins/toxicity*; Time Factors; Water Pollutants, Chemical/pharmacology*

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