Sublethal chemical stimulation of arthropod parasitoids and parasites of agricultural and environmental importance

Evgenios Agathokleous; James D Blande; Noboru Masui; Edward J Calabrese; Jing Zhang; Pierre Sicard; Raul Narciso C Guedes; Giovanni Benelli

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2023.116876

Sublethal chemical stimulation of arthropod parasitoids and parasites of agricultural and environmental importance

Environ Res. 2023 Nov 15;237(Pt 1):116876. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116876. Epub 2023 Aug 11.

Authors

Evgenios Agathokleous¹, James D Blande², Noboru Masui³, Edward J Calabrese⁴, Jing Zhang⁵, Pierre Sicard⁶, Raul Narciso C Guedes⁷, Giovanni Benelli⁸

Affiliations

¹ Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters (CIC-FEMD), Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, 210044, Jiangsu, China; Research Center for Global Changes and Ecosystem Carbon Sequestration & Mitigation, School of Applied Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, Jiangsu, China. Electronic address: evgenios@nuist.edu.cn.
² Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, P. O. Box 1627, 70211, Kuopio, Finland.
³ School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University of Shizuoka, Shizuoka, 4228526, Japan.
⁴ Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Morrill I, N344, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA.
⁵ College of Ecological Technology and Engineering, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai, 201418, PR China.
⁶ ARGANS, 260 Route Du Pin Montard, Biot, France.
⁷ Departamento de Entomologia, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, MG, 36570-900, Brazil.
⁸ Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Via Del Borghetto 80, 56124, Pisa, Italy.

PMID: 37573021
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116876

Abstract

An increasing number of studies have reported stimulation of various organisms in the presence of environmental contaminants. This has created a need to critically evaluate sublethal stimulation and hormetic responses of arthropod parasitoids and parasites following exposure to pesticides and other contaminants. Examining this phenomenon with a focus on arthropods of agricultural and environmental importance serves as the framework for this literature review. This review shows that several pesticides, with diverse chemical structures and different modes of action, applied individually or in combination at sublethal doses, commonly stimulate an array of arthropod parasitoids and parasites. Exposure at sublethal doses can enhance responses related to physiology (e.g., respiration, total lipid content, and total protein content), behavior (e.g., locomotor activity, antennal drumming frequency, host location, and parasitization), and fitness (longevity, growth, fecundity, population net and gross reproduction). Concordantly, the parasitic potential (e.g., infestation efficacy, parasitization rate, and parasitoid/parasite emergence) can be increased, and as a result host activities inhibited. There is some evidence illustrating hormetic dose-responses, but the relevant literature commonly included a limited number and range of doses, precluding a robust differentiation between sub- and superNOAEL (no-observed-adverse-effect level) stimulation. These results reveal a potentially significant threat to ecological health, through stimulation of harmful parasitic organisms by environmental contaminants, and highlight the need to include sublethal stimulation and hormetic responses in relevant ecological pesticide risk assessments. Curiously, considering a more utilitarian view, hormesis may also assist in optimizing mass rearing of biological control agents for field use, a possibility that also remains neglected.

Keywords: Hormetic dose-response relationship; Natural enemy; Parasitic arthropod; Parasitoid; Pest-parasite interaction.

Publication types

Review