Neonicotinoid effects on tropical bees: Imidacloprid impairs innate appetitive responsiveness, learning and memory in the stingless bee Melipona quadrifasciata

Autor(es)

Aguiar, Joao Marcelo Robazzi Bignelli Valente ; Nocelli, Roberta Cornelio Ferreira ; Giurfa, Martin ; Nascimento, Fabio Santos

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: Science of The Total Environment; v. 877, p. 8-pg., 2023-03-20.

Resumo

Together with other anthropogenic factors, pesticides play a major role in pollinator decline worldwide. Most studies on their influence on pollinators have focused on honey bees given the suitability of this insect for controlled behav-ioral testing and raising. Yet, studies on pesticide impact should also contemplate tropical species, which contribute a major part of biodiversity and which have remained so far neglected. Here we focused on the stingless bee Melipona quadrifasciata and asked if the widely used neonicotinoid imidacloprid disrupts its learning and memory capabilities. We fed stingless bees with 0.1, 0.5 or 1 ng of imidacloprid, tested their innate appetitive responsiveness and trained them to associate odors and sucrose reward using the olfactory conditioning of the proboscis extension response. The same experiments were performed on Africanized honey bees. One hour after intoxication, both species decreased their innate responsiveness to sucrose but the effect was more accentuated in stingless bees. In both species, learning and memory were affected in a dose-dependent manner. These results indicate that pesticides have dramatic conse-quences on tropical bee species and claim for rational policies regulating their use in the tropics. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 17/21097-3 - Interações abelha-agricultura: perspectivas para a utilização sustentável
• Beneficiário: Osmar Malaspina
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa BIOTA - Temático
• Processo FAPESP: 21/05598-8 - A evolução da plasticidade e o dimorfismo entre as castas em sociedades de insetos
• Beneficiário: Fábio Santos do Nascimento
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Regular
• Processo FAPESP: 19/20408-0 - Efeito de agrotóxicos no aprendizado e memória de abelhas nativas do Brasil
• Beneficiário: João Marcelo Robazzi Bignelli Valente Aguiar
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Pós-Doutorado