Toxicity of pesticides toAllobophora caliginosa(Oligochaeta : Lumbricidae)

Abstract

Juvenile (4-week-old) earthworms reared in a laboratory were kept individually for 7 days in soil treated with several concentrations of various pesticides. Mortality and weight change were recorded. The relative toxicity of each pesticide-i.e., the cOlicentration (mg/kg of dry soil) of pesticide causing zero growth-compared with the standard, carbofuran (0.10), was aldicarb (0.09), phorate (0.30), aldoxycarb (0.40), methomyl (0.54), ox amyl (0.59), isazophos (0.93), fenamifos (5.72), fensulfothion (7.35), diazinon (12.4), copper (106), and citowett (525). Field trial data from 33 published reports show similar relative toxicity results. The toxicity of carbofuran to Lumbricus rubellus and All%bophora caliginosa was similar. Decreasing concentrations of carbofuran caused mortality, suppression of growth, and suppression of egg capsule production in mature (clitellate) A. caliginosa collected from the field. The concentrations of carbofuran safe to juvenile and clitellate A. ca/iginosa were similar. Use of a single batch of natural soil, an artificial soil, or the silica powder and glass bead media used in one of the proposed EEC tests could reduce variation between tests. The latter media would provide the most standardised conditions for a toxicity test. Juvenile A. caliginosa which are easily reared would be a more appropriate species for the EEC test than Eisenia fetida.

Evaluation of the Fungicide Manganese-Zinc Ethylene Bis(dithiocarbamate) (Mancozeb) for Sublethal and Acute Toxicity to Eisenia fetida (Oligochaeta)

“…Although Martin (1986) suggested that juveniles might be more sensitive to pesticides than adults, the mean number and biomass of hatchlings produced per cocoon in both the treatments were not signi"cantly di!erent from that of controls. Mancozeb, therefore, had no e!ect on the number and/or biomass of the hatchlings produced.…”

Toxicity of three pesticides commonly used in Brazil to Pontoscolex corethrurus (Müller, 1857) and Eisenia andrei (Bouché, 1972)

“…Carbendazim and carbofuran have well known toxicity to native and exotic species of several earthworm families (Haque and Ebing, 1983;Gough, 1986;Martin, 1986;Panda and Sahu, 2004;Ellis et al, 2010;Tripathi et al, 2010;De Silva et al, 2010), while glyphosate generally has non-toxic or less-toxic effects (Dalby et al, 1995;Yasmin and D'Souza, 2007). Most herbicides are less toxic to earthworms than insecticides and fungicides, although some can be lethal, depending on the active ingredient (Edwards and Bohlen, 1992).…”

Pesticides and earthworms. A review

“…Studies found in the literature on the effect of pesticides on earthworms were conducted either under laboratory conditions (Bauer and Römbke 1997;Cathey 1982;RodriguezCastellanos and Sanchez-Hernandez 2007;Brulle et al 2010;Muthukaruppan and Paramasamy 2010) or in the field (Martin 1986;Reddy and Reddy 1992). Evaluation was achieved using different indicators that were investigated at various organisation levels.…”