Impact of acute oral exposure to thiamethoxam on the homing, flight, learning acquisition and short-term retention of Apis cerana

Changsheng Ma, Yongkui Zhang, Jia Sun, Muhammad Imran, Huipeng Yang, Jie Wu, Yi Zou*, Hongmei Li-Byarlay, Shudong Luo

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: Thiamethoxam (TMX) represents the second generation of neonicotinoids that has been widely applied in agricultural activities, while how TMX alters the behavior of Apis cerana, an important native honey bee species in China, is not clear. We carried out three independent experiments to study the impact of acute oral treatment of 20 μL TMX at concentrations of 2.4 ppb (0.048 ng/bee) and 10 ppb (0.2 ng/bee) on the homing, flight, learning acquisition and short-term retention ability of A. cerana. The homing ability was assessed by the catch-and-release method, the flight ability was assessed by flight mills, and the learning acquisition and short-term retention were evaluated by the proboscis extension response method. Results: When treated with 10 ppb of TMX, bees had a significantly higher average homing time, mean flight velocity, flying distance, and flying duration than the control, whereas 2.4 ppb concentration did not cause any significant effect on homing or flight ability. Bees treated with either 2.4 ppb or 10 ppb TMX had significantly lower learning acquisition and short-term retention ability. Conclusion: Results suggest that acute oral exposure to 10 ppb of TMX altered the short-distance homing time, flight ability, and learning acquisition and short-term retention ability. Our study also highlights the concern that acute oral exposure to a low concentration of 2.4 ppb could have consequences on the behavior of A. creana. Those multiple sublethal alterations on A. cerana's behavior indicate that TMX are likely having complex but negative consequences on bee health in the field.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2975-2980
Number of pages6
JournalPest Management Science
Volume75
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2019

Keywords

  • TMX
  • eastern honey bee
  • flight velocity
  • homing rate
  • homing time
  • proboscis extension response

Cite this