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Comparative selectivity of nano and commercial formulations of pirimicarb on a target pest, Brevicoryne brassicae, and its predator Chrysoperla carnea

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Abstract

Nanotechnology is a new field in the pesticide industry. Nanopesticides represent an emerging technological tool that offers a range of benefits including increased efficacy, durability, and reduction in the amounts of used active ingredients. However, due to the lack of studies on the toxicity and the sublethal effects on pests and natural enemies, the extent of action and fate of these nanopesticdes is still not fully understood limitting thus their wide use. In this study, we encapsulated the pirimicarb insecticide using nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) and investigated the toxicity and sublethal effects (LC25) of the resulting nanocapsules against the cabbage aphid, Brevicoryne brassicae (Linnaeus) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and its natural enemy the green lacewings Chrysoperla carnea (Stephens) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae). Nanoencapsulation of pirimicarb enhanced 12.6-fold its toxicity to cabbage aphids compared to its commercial formulation. Furthermore, analysis of the age-stage, two-sex life table showed that negative effects on the B. brassicae aphid population growth were observed on F0 and F1 generations when aphids of parental (F0) generation were exposed to subelethal dose (LC25) of both formulations of pirimicarb. However, negative effects from sublethal exposure to the commercial and nanoformulated pirimicarb resulted in significant reduction on the net reproductive rate, intrinsic rate of natural increase, and finite rate of increase of the green lacewings C. carnea. Our findings indicate that the approaches and assumptions used to assess the risks of conventional insecticides may not apply for nanopesticides. Further research is still needed to better understand the environmental impact of these compounds.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

    Nariman Maroofpour, Mir Jalil Hejazi & Shahzad Iranipour

  2. Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

    Mahdieh Mousavi

  3. Drug Applied Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

    Hamed Hamishehkar

  4. Université Côte d’Azur, INRAE, CNRS, UMR ISA, 06000, Nice, France

    Nicolas Desneux

  5. Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Catania, Catania, Italy

    Antonio Biondi

  6. Department of Entomology, Federal University of Lavras, Lavras, MG, 37200-000, Brazil

    Khalid Haddi

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  1. Nariman Maroofpour
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  2. Mahdieh Mousavi
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  3. Mir Jalil Hejazi
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  4. Shahzad Iranipour
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  5. Hamed Hamishehkar
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  6. Nicolas Desneux
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  7. Antonio Biondi
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  8. Khalid Haddi
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Contributions

MJH, HH and SI conceived and designed the experiments. NM and MM performed the experiments. NM and KH established and analyzed the bioassay data and life table. NM and MM writing-original draft of manuscript. KH, AB and ND writing-review and editing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nariman Maroofpour.

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Maroofpour, N., Mousavi, M., Hejazi, M.J. et al. Comparative selectivity of nano and commercial formulations of pirimicarb on a target pest, Brevicoryne brassicae, and its predator Chrysoperla carnea. Ecotoxicology 30, 361–372 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-021-02349-x

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