peer reviewed | The leafminer Tuta absoluta Meyrick (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) is one of the most important pests of tomato, reducing crop yields by up to 100% in greenhouses and fields, in several countries globally. Because synthetic insecticides lead to resistance and have adverse effects on natural enemies and the health of producers, alternative control methods are needed. In this study, we assessed the oviposition-deterring effect of basil plants, Ocimum gratissimum L. and O. basilicum L. (Lamiaceae), using dual-choice behavioural assays performed in flight tunnels. We found that both plants significantly reduced T. absoluta oviposition behaviour on a tomato plant located nearby. To evaluate the potential effect of basil volatile organic compounds, we formulated essential oils of both plant species in paraffin oil, and observed a similar oviposition-deterring effect. Gas chromatography analyses detected 18 constituents in these essential oils which the major constituents included thymol (33.3%), p-cymene (20.4%), γ-terpinene (16.9%), myrcene (3.9%) in O. gratissimum and estragol (73.8%), linalool (8.6%), β-elemene (2.9%) and E-β-ocimene (2.6%) in O. basilicum. Twenty and 33 compounds were identified of the volatiles collected on O. gratissimum and O. basilicum plants, respectively. The main components include the following: p-cymene (33.5%), γ-terpinene (23.6%), α-terpinene (7.2%), α-thujene (6.7%) and E-α-bergamotene (38.9%) in O. gratissimum, and methyl eugenol (26.1%), E-β-ocimene (17.7%), and linalool (9.4%) in O. basilicum. Four compounds (α-pinene, β-pinene, Myrcene, Limonene) were common in essential oils and plants. Our results suggest the valuable potential of basil and associated essential oils as a component of integrated management strategies against the tomato leafminer.

This work is based on biotests being experimented at sea organisms - fish Serranus scriba. We were studying the activity of the mentioned fish in sublethal concentrations of organochloric pesticide - lindane. Besides the classic biotests, we used some new methods for neurotoxic testing that include the influence of this pesticide on circadian activity of fish as well as the variations in obtaining the positive conditioned reflexive responses. The results of these experiments show that this kind of fish reacts at the subtile changes of toxic concentration with the change of quality and rhythm in its conditioned reflexive reactions, that appeared earlier than other global signs of intoxication.

Neonicotinoids are globally used insecticides, and there are increasing evidence on their negative efects on birds. This study is aimed at characterizing the behavioral and physiological efects of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid (IMI) in a songbird. Adults of Agelaioides badius were exposed for 7 days to non-treated peeled millet and to peeled millet treated with nominal concentrations of 75 (IMI1) and 450 (IMI2) mg IMI/kg seed. On days 2 and 6 of the trial, the behavior of each bird was evaluated for 9 min by measuring the time spent on the foor, the perch, or the feeder. Daily millet consumption, initial and fnal body weight, and physiological, hematological, genotoxic, and biochemical parameters at the end of exposure were also measured. Activity was greatest on the foor, followed by the perch and the feeder. On the second day, birds exposed to IMI1and IMI2 remained mostly on the perch and the feeder, respectively. On the sixth day, a transition occurred to sec tors of greater activity, consistent with the disappearance of the intoxication signs: birds from IMI1 and IMI2 increased their time on the foor and the perch, respectively. Control birds always remained most of the time on the foor. IMI2 birds signifcantly decreased their feed intake by 31% the frst 3 days, compared to the other groups, and signifcantly decreased their body weight at the end of the exposure. From the set of hematological, genotoxic, and biochemical parameters, treated birds exhibited an alteration of glutathione-S-transferase activity (GST) in breast muscle; the minimal efects observed are probably related to the IMI administration regime. These results highlight that the consumption of less than 10% of the bird daily diet as IMI-treated seeds trigger efects at multiple levels that can impair bird survival. | Fil: Poliserpi, María Belén. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Recursos Biológicos; Argentina | Fil: Abad, Tatiana Noya. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Química Biológica; Argentina. Universidad Maimómides. Centro de Ciencias Naturales, Ambientales y Antropológicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina | Fil: De Gerónimo, Eduardo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Balcarce; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. | Fil: Brodeur, Julie Céline. Consejo de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Recursos Biológicos. Argentina | Fil: Aparicio, Virginia Carolina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Balcarce; Argentina

Acoustic pollution in aquatic environments has increased with adverse effects on many aquatic organisms. However, little work has been done considering the effects of the vibratory component of acoustic stimuli, which can be transmitted in the substrate and propagated into the aquatic medium. Benthic marine organisms, including many invertebrates, are capable of sensing seabed vibration, yet the responses they trigger on organism have received little attention. This study investigates the impact of underwater vibration on the physiology and behaviour of a ubiquitous inhabitant of coastal areas of the northern hemisphere, the shore crab Carcinus maenas. We developed a novel vibratory apparatus with geophones supported on a softly sprung frame to induce a seabed vibration of 20 Hz frequency, as observed during dredging, piling and other anthropogenic activities. The geophone internal mass caused the frame to vibrate in a controlled manner. Our results show that transition from ambient to anthropogenic vibrations induced an increase in activity and antennae beats in shore crabs, indicating perception of the vibratory stimulus and a higher stress level. There was also a trend on sex-specific responses to anthropogenic vibration, with males showing a higher activity level than females. However, no effect of anthropogenic vibrations was found upon oxygen consumption. These results show that anthropogenic underwater vibration induces behavioural responses in Carcinus maenas. This highlights the importance of evaluating man-made vibratory activities on coastal invertebrates and the necessity of evaluating anthropogenic effects on both sexes.

The prevalence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in lotic habitats is increasing, with the main source of these contaminants being effluent from waste water treatment works (WwTW). There is still much uncertainty about the impacts of these PPCPs at environmentally relevant concentrations and their potential effects on aquatic ecology. Behaviour is a sensitive endpoint which can help evaluate possible population level effects from changes in physiology. This paper evaluates the effects of WwTW effluent on a range of behaviours in the freshwater invertebrate, Gammarus pulex. Effluent taken from the outflow of two WwTW in southern England was used in the study. Behavioural analyses, namely feeding rate, phototaxis, activity, velocity and precopula pairing, were measured in G. pulex following a period of one and three weeks after exposure to a 50% or 100% effluent and a control. Mortality remained very low throughout the 3 week experiment (0–10%, n = 20) and no significant changes in moulting frequency were observed (p > 0.05). No significant effects on feeding or velocity or phototaxis following 3 weeks of effluent exposures were observed (p > 0.05). However, significant reductions were observed in the overall activity over 3 weeks across which appeared to be exacerbated by exposure to effluents. Interestingly, males exposed for 3 weeks to WwTW effluent re-paired with unexposed females significantly faster (4-6x) than control animals. This result was consistent between the effluents taken from the two WwTW. The implications of these behavioural changes are currently unknown but highlight the need for a varied set of tools to study the behavioural changes in wildlife.

Several studies have indicated the presence of contaminants in Alpine aquatic ecosystems. Even if measured concentrations are far below those that cause acute effects, continuous exposure to sub-lethal concentrations may have detrimental effects on the aquatic species present in these remote environments. This may lead to a cascade of indirect effects at higher levels of the ecological hierarchy (i.e., the community). To improve the determination of ecologically relevant risk endpoints, behavioural alterations in organisms due to pollutants are increasingly studied in ecotoxicology. In fact, behaviour links physiological function with ecological processes, and can be very sensitive to environmental stimuli and chemical exposure. This is the first study on behavioural alteration in a wild population of an Alpine species. In the present study, a video tracking system was standardized and subsequently used to identify contaminant-induced behavioural alterations in Diamesa zernyi larvae (Diptera, Chironomidae). Diamesa zernyi larvae, collected in an Italian Alpine stream (Rio Presena, Trentino Region), were acclimated for 24 h and successively exposed to several aquatic contaminants (pesticides: chlorpyrifos, metolachlor, boscalid, captan; pharmaceuticals: ibuprofen, furosemide, trimethoprim) at concentrations corresponding to their Lowest Observed Effect Concentration (LOEC). After 24, 48, 72, and 96 h of exposure, changes in the distance moved, the average speed, and the frequency of body bends were taken to reflect contaminant- and time-dependent effects on larval behaviour. In general, metolachlor, captan, and trimethoprim tended to reduce all the endpoints under consideration, whereas chlorpyrifos, boscalid, ibuprofen, and furosemide seemed to increase the distances moved by the larvae. This could be related to the different mechanisms of action of the investigated chemicals. Independently of the contaminant, after 72 h a general slowing down of all the behavioural activities occurred. Finally, we propose a behavioural stress indicator to compare the overall behavioural effects induced by the various contaminants.

Triphenyl phosphate (TPHP) is an organophosphate ester (OPE) used as a flame retardant (FR) and plasticizer. TPHP has previously been shown to disrupt behaviour in fish and mammals, but to our knowledge, this is the first study on the behavioural effects of TPHP in birds. Early life stage Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) were exposed to nominal doses of 0 ng/g (vehicle-control), 5 ng/g (low dose), 50 ng/g (mid dose), and 100 ng/g (high dose) TPHP, both as embryos (via air cell injection prior to incubation) and as chicks (via daily gavage until 5 days post-hatch). The low dose reflects TPHP levels recorded in wild avian eggs, but actual environmental exposure levels may be higher given that TPHP is known to be rapidly metabolized in birds. We previously reported that the chicks exposed to TPHP in this study experienced reduced growth and resting metabolic rate, and sex-specific changes in thyroid function. The current study focuses on behavioural endpoints. We found that high-TPHP chicks exhibited less neophobia than vehicle-controls, and low-TPHP chicks exhibited more aggression towards conspecifics. No differences were observed in the responses of Japanese quail chicks to activity or tonic immobility (fear response) tests. These data add weight of evidence to previous findings suggesting that TPHP, among other OPEs, can disrupt ecologically-relevant behaviours in exposed vertebrates.

Oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) — a byproduct of the oil sands industry in Northern Alberta, Canada – is currently stored in on-site tailings ponds. The goal of the present study was to investigate the interaction of OSPW with the olfactory system and olfactory-mediated behaviours of fish upon the first encounter with OSPW. The response of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) to different concentrations (0.1, 1, and 10%) of OSPW was studied using a choice maze and electro-olfactography (EOG), respectively. The results of the present study showed that rainbow trout are capable of detecting and avoiding OSPW at a concentration as low as 0.1%. Exposure to 1% OSPW impaired (i.e. reduced sensitivity) the olfactory response of rainbow trout to alarm and food cues within 5 min or less. The results of the present study demonstrated that fish could detect and avoid minute concentrations of OSPW. However, if fish were exposed to OSPW-contaminated water and unable to escape, their olfaction would be impaired.

The development of the eye in vertebrates is dependent upon glucocorticoid signalling, however, specific components of the eye are sensitive to synthetic glucocorticoids. The presence of synthetic glucocorticoids within the aquatic environment may therefore have important consequences for fish, which are heavily reliant upon vision for mediating several key behaviours. The potential ethological impact of synthetic glucocorticoid oculotoxicity however has yet to be studied. Physiological and behavioural responses which are dependent upon vision were selected to investigate the possible toxicity of prednisolone, a commonly occurring synthetic glucocorticoid within the environment, during early life stages of zebrafish. Although exposure to prednisolone did not alter the morphology of the external eye, aggregation of melanin within the skin in response to increasing light levels was impeded and embryos exposed to prednisolone (10 μg/l) maintained a darkened phenotype. Exposure to prednisolone also increased the preference of embryos for a dark environment within a light dark box test in a concentration dependent manner. However the ability of embryos to detect motion appeared unaffected by prednisolone. Therefore, while significant effects were detected in several processes mediated by vision, changes occurred in a manner which suggest that vision was in itself unaffected by prednisolone. Neurological and endocrinological changes during early ontogeny are considered as likely candidates for future investigation.