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Oral Toxicity of Fipronil Insecticide Against the Stingless Bee Melipona scutellaris (Latreille, 1811)

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Abstract

For a better evaluation of the model using Apis mellifera in toxicology studies with insecticides, the oral acute toxicity of the insecticide fipronil against the stingless bee Melipona scutellaris was determined. The results showed that fipronil was highly toxic to M. scutellaris, with a calculated LC50 (48 h) value of 0.011 ng a.i./μL of sucrose solution and an estimated oral LD50 (48 h) of 0.6 ng a.i./bee. Our results showed that M. scutellaris bee is more sensitive to fipronil than the model specie A. mellifera.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento Pessoal de Nível Superior, CAPES Brazil (http://www.capes.gov.br/) .

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Ciências Agrárias (CCA), Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), Rod. Anhanguera, Km 174, Araras, SP, 13600-970, Brazil

    Clara Tavares Lourenço & Roberta Cornélio Ferreira Nocelli

  2. Centro de Estudos de Insetos Sociais (CEIS), Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” (UNESP), Av. 24 A, 1515, Bela Vista, Rio Claro, SP, 13506-900, Brazil

    Stephan Malfitano Carvalho & Osmar Malaspina

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  1. Clara Tavares Lourenço
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  2. Stephan Malfitano Carvalho
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  3. Osmar Malaspina
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  4. Roberta Cornélio Ferreira Nocelli
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Correspondence to Clara Tavares Lourenço.

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Lourenço, C.T., Carvalho, S.M., Malaspina, O. et al. Oral Toxicity of Fipronil Insecticide Against the Stingless Bee Melipona scutellaris (Latreille, 1811). Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 89, 921–924 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-012-0773-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-012-0773-x

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