Particulate matter on two Prunus spp. decreases survival and performance of the folivorous beetle Gonioctena quinquepunctata

Abstract

Woody plants growing along streets and construction sites play an important role in removing harmful particulate matter (PM). Researchers rarely consider the impact of different types and size fractions of PM deposited on the leaves on insect folivores. We determined differences in the accumulation of cement and roadside PM on the leaves of two Prunus species (P. padus and P. serotina) with different leaf surface structures. We also determined the effect of PM on the beetle Gonioctena quinquepunctata, the main pest of these plants. Saplings were artificially dusted in greenhouses and leaves were utilised for larval and adult insect stages feeding in laboratory conditions. Road PM accumulated in greater amounts than did cement PM, regardless of plant species. For both PM sources, P. padus accumulated twofold more than did P. serotina. Insect survival was negatively affected by PM pollution; however, neither Prunus species nor PM source variant significantly affected masses of larvae and pupae, duration of larval and pupal development or relative growth rates. The experiment showed strong negative influences of PM were noted only for adult insects, due to the grazing period being longer than that in larvae. The mass of adult insects and the efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI) were lower for insects exposed to PM than those for control insects. Insects compensated for lower ECI by eating a greater total amount of food (TFE). Adult insects gained significantly higher mass when fed with P. serotina than with P. padus. The effect of PM on analysed plant metabolites was insignificant. Only Prunus sp. and date of collection affected the level of condensed tannins and total phenols. Our results indicate that, when investigating the effect of the host plant on folivore performance, the accumulation of PM, as well as its type and quantity, should be taken into account.

Particulate matter on foliage of Betula pendula, Quercus robur, and Tilia cordata: deposition and ecophysiology

“…Furthermore, high levels of PM pollution may also reduce the amount of chlorophyll in plant cells (Prusty et al 2005), and the fluorescence of chlorophyll a may be altered (Naidoo and Chirkoot 2004;Popek et al 2017b). The impacts of PM can be far-reaching because their accumulation has significant effects not only on the physiological processes of the entire plant but also on organisms in upper trophic levels, such as folivorous insects (Khan et al 2013;Łukowski et al 2018).…”

Phyto-Cleaning of Particulate Matter from Polluted Air by Woody Plant Species in the Near-Desert City of Jodhpur (India) and the Role of Heme Oxygenase in Their Response to PM Stress Conditions

“…despite a much thinner wax layer. As many researchers have noted, these contrasting data suggest that not only the total wax content, but also its chemical composition or structure, may be important for e cient PM accumulation(Jouraeva et al 2002;Łukowski et al 2018;Popek et al 2015;Przybysz et al 2014;Saebø et al 2012). In this work, taking into account all the species together, the amount of wax was positively correlated with the amount of W PM (r = 0.66; P < 0.0001).…”

Pollutants and Their Interaction with Diseases of Social Hymenoptera

“…Also, other herbivorous insects serving as prey for social wasps may accumulate these pollutants, which may result in the increased exposure of these predatory wasps to heavy metals [35,36,47,63,65,[68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80]. Pesticides (or their residues) and heavy metals, as well as other pollutants from combustion, traffic, agriculture, and coal mining, can also form or bind to fine particulate matter [66,[81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91] that pollutes the air. Eventually, fine particulate matter settles on surfaces, such as insect cuticles [88,89] or flowers [92] (Figure 2).…”

“…Insects are likely to ingest fine particulate matter via their food, as it may either be in the nectar or have settled on other surfaces such as plant material [86,87,91,92]. In social insects and especially honeybees, the collection of fine particulate matter during foraging translates into an accumulation of xenobiotics in honey and beebread.…”