New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science abstracts

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Short communication
No sub-lethal toxicity to bumblebees, Bombus terrestris, exposed to Bt-corn pollen, captan and novaluron

L. A. Malone¹
C. D. Scott-Dupree²
J. H. Todd¹
P. Ramankutty¹

¹ The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Limited
Private Bag 92 169
Auckland, New Zealand
email: LMalone@hortresearch.co.nz
² Department of Environmental Biology
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1

Abstract Queenless microcolonies of Bombus terrestris were fed either mixed floral pollen, non-transgenic sweet corn pollen, transgenic Bt-sweet corn pollen, or pollen mixed with either the fungicide captan or the insect growth regulator novaluron. None of the treatments significantly affected survival of worker bees, rates at which they consumed pollen or sugar syrup, their ability to produce offspring, or the timing of events in the development of their offspring, compared with the appropriate controls. Drones from microcolonies fed 0.135 mg/kg^–1 a.i. novaluron were significantly shorter-lived than controls fed floral pollen. Drones from microcolonies fed corn pollen were significantly smaller than the controls, regardless of whether the corn pollen was transgenic or not. These pest control technologies are unlikely to affect B. terrestris bumblebees significantly in the field.

Keywords Bombus terrestris; transgenic Bt-corn pollen; captan; novaluron

New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science, 2007, Vol. 35: 435–439
0014–0671/07/3504–0435      © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2007
H07045; Online publication date 21 November 2007
Received 23 April 2007; accepted 23 October 2007

PDF file of entire paper: Print-quality (208K) | screen-quality (202K)

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