Recent insights into sublethal effects of pesticides on insect respiratory physiology

Abstract

Determination of the sublethal effects of pesticides on insects is a challenging topic because of the vast number of different possible end points. Sublethal effects can manifest themselves through changes in motor activity, behavior, or, in the case of social insects, learn- ing ability. These are still the outcomes of physiological changes. As autonomic processes like respiration assure the normal functioning of any organism, the estimation of disturbances of these processes can give valuable data for toxicology researchers. This review reports a vari- ety of effects of pesticides on insect respiratory patterns, metabolic rate, and water loss rate. Although the tested pesticides and target subjects belong to very different groups, the results of the reviewed studies indicate several common effects. We conclude that the study of the pesticide effects on insect respiratory physiology has potential for further development as a methodology for measurement of basic physiological changes as it allows measurement of the intact living insect, the result is obtained rapidly, and several parameters can be measured simultaneously. At the same time, the method has its shortcomings: the equipment is expensive and complicated, the results can be affected by the experimental conditions, and as yet there are no standardized end points for data comparison.