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From lethality to mortality: exploring the “grey area” of knockdown as an efficacy indicator of different insecticides against major storage insects using a lethality index

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Abstract

In the present work, a lethality index was applied for the evaluation of three insecticides with different modes of action, i.e., thiamethoxam, chlorfenapyr and lambda-cyhalothrin, as surface treatment against adults of Sitophilus oryzae (L.), Oryzaephilus surinamensis (L.) and Tribolium confusum Jacquelin du Val, in laboratory bioassays. The insecticides were applied at their highest label dose, while insect knockdown and mortality were evaluated after 1, 3, 5 and 7 days of exposure to the treated surfaces according to the Standardized Lethality Index, by ranking each insect from “0” to “4,” with “0” corresponding to insects moving normally and “4” corresponding to dead individuals. After the end of the exposure, the surviving insects were transferred to clean, untreated dishes and delayed mortality was assessed after an additional period of 1, 3, 5 and 7 days. Based on the results, initial knockdown was high for S. oryzae after exposure to thiamethoxam and lambda-cyhalothrin even after 1 day of exposure, whereas for longer exposures high mortality levels were recorded. In contrast, in the case of chlorfenapyr knockdown was low after 1 day of exposure; however, high mortality levels were noted after 3 and 5 days of exposure. Similar results were noted for O. surinamensis, which was highly susceptible to all three insecticides tested. The most tolerant insect species to the tested insecticides was T. confusum, since a noticeable number of T. confusum adults were still active at the end of the exposure (7 days). Our results indicate that knockdown is most likely to lead to mortality than to recovery, but there were important differences among the three insecticides tested.

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Acknowledgements

Mention of trade names or commercial products in this publication is solely for the purpose of providing specific information and does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the University of Thessaly over others not mentioned.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Entomology and Agricultural Zoology, Department of Agriculture, Crop Production and Rural Environment, University of Thessaly, Phytokou Str., 38446, N. Ionia, Magnesia, Greece

    Baliota Georgia, Rumbos I. Christos & Athanassiou G. Christos

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  1. Baliota Georgia
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  2. Rumbos I. Christos
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  3. Athanassiou G. Christos
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Contributions

CGA conceived and designed research. GB conducted the experiments. CIR analyzed the data. CGA and CIR contributed to writing the paper with CGA as the lead. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Athanassiou G. Christos.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the University of Thessaly.

Ethical statement

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors. All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

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Communicated by M. Traugott.

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Georgia, B., Christos, R.I. & Christos, A.G. From lethality to mortality: exploring the “grey area” of knockdown as an efficacy indicator of different insecticides against major storage insects using a lethality index. J Pest Sci 91, 1371–1380 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-018-0983-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-018-0983-z

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