Exposure to spinosad affects orb-web spider (Agalenatea redii) survival, web construction and prey capture under laboratory conditions

Summary

Spinosad is a neurotoxic pesticide, which is currently used in IPM and organic agriculture. It can affect the survival and ecological function of spiders, which are natural enemies of important agricultural pests. In the laboratory, we carried out tests to determine lethal and sublethal effects of spinosad on mortality, web building, and web characteristics of Agalenatea redii. Spinosad has a lethal effect at the normal application rate (NAR, i.e., 96 g ha(-1)) causing 35 % mortality (vs 0 % for control) after 4 days and 62 % mortality (vs 14 % for control) after 30 days. For the sublethal effects, web building was affected and fewer spiders built webs when exposed to spinosad (10/37 at NAR and 28/39 at half the NAR vs 35/37 for control group). No delay in web building was observed following exposure. Spider webs showed irregularities in the spiral-thread spacing (parallelism) when exposed to higher doses of spinosad (NAR and half of the NAR). Spinosad also affected prey capture: spiders exposed to spinosad (NAR) showed decreased prey capture efficiency (32 vs 73 % for control). These results showed that spinosad affects the spider predatory behavior (agriculture auxiliaries), which could modify their role in pest biocontrol.