The effects of field-realistic doses of imidacloprid on Melipona quadrifasciata ( Apidae : Meliponini ) workers
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
The effects of field-realistic doses of imidacloprid on Melipona quadrifasciata (Apidae: Meliponini) workers Pedro Brito 1 & Marcos Elias 2 & Carlos Silva-Neto 3 & Edison Sujii 4 & Daniela Silva 5 & Bruno Gonçalves 6 & Edivani Franceschinelli 2 Received: 26 October 2019 / Accepted: 20 March 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The presence of Brazilian native bees can improve tomato production by increasing pollination effectiveness. However, the extensive use of pesticides in tomato cultures may be harmful to bees. Imidacloprid-based insecticides are used in tomato plantations because of its high efficiency against tomato pests. This study investigated the effects of oral intake of fieldrealistic concentrations of imidacloprid by M. quadrifasciata workers, a stingless native bee from Brazil and effective pollinators of tomato crops. The oral intake of sucrose syrup added with 10, 35, or 70 ppb of imidacloprid did not increase the mortality rate when compared with the control group. However, we observed a reduction in the workers’ motility and food consumption. We also treated M. quadrifasciata workers with sucrose syrup mixed with an imidacloprid-based insecticide (Evidence 700 WG®, Bayer), with the final concentration of 250 ppb of imidacloprid. This treatment did not cause visible alterations of the intestine absorptive cells of the bees’ midgut and did not increase DNA damage. Therefore, the observed reduction of food consumption and locomotion behavior of M. quadrifasciata workers may contribute to the global effort to understand the contribution of neonicotinoids on bees’ population decline process. Keywords Stingless bees . Neonicotinoids . Insecticide . Electron microscopy . Comet assay . Pollinators
Introduction
Responsible editor: Giovanni Benelli * Pedro Brito [email protected] 1
Laboratório de Estudos Morfológicos, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Brazil
2
Laboratório de Biologia Reprodutiva de Plantas, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Brazil
3
Laboratório de Sementes e Coleções Biológicas, Instituto Federal de Educação Ciência e Tecnologia de Goiás, Goiás, Brazil
4
Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária, Brasilia, Brazil
5
Laboratório de Mutagênese, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Brazil
6
Laboratório de Biotecnologia Ambiental e Ecotoxicologia, Instituto Tropical de Patologia e Saúde Pública, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Brazil
Brazil is among the most significant agricultural producing country, and much of its production depends on bee pollination (Giannini et al. 2015a, b). A loss of about $12–14 billion for Brazilian agriculture was estimated if bees are extinguished (Novais et al. 2016; Giannini et al. 2015a, b; Santos et al. 2018). Wild bees, such as of Melipona, Xylocopa, Centris, and Bombus genus (Giannini et al
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