A sublethal dose of a neonicotinoid insecticide disrupts visual processing and collision avoidance behaviour in Locusta migratoria

Neonicotinoids are known to affect insect navigation and vision, however the mechanisms of these effects are not fully understood. A visual motion sensitive neuron in the locust, the Descending Contralateral Movement Detector (DCMD), integrates visual information and is involved in eliciting escape behaviours. The DCMD receives coded input from the compound eyes and monosynaptically excites motorneurons involved in flight and jumping. We show that imidacloprid (IMD) impairs neural responses to visual stimuli at sublethal concentrations, and these effects are sustained two and twenty-four hours after treatment. Most significantly, IMD disrupted bursting, a coding property important for motion detection. Specifically, IMD reduced the DCMD peak firing rate within bursts at ecologically relevant doses of 10 ng/g (ng IMD per g locust body weight). Effects on DCMD firing translate to deficits in collision avoidance behaviours: exposure to 10 ng/g IMD attenuates escape manoeuvers while 100 ng/g IMD prevents the ability to fly and walk. We show that, at ecologically-relevant doses, IMD causes significant and lasting impairment of an important pathway involved with visual sensory coding and escape behaviours. These results show, for the first time, that a neonicotinoid pesticide directly impairs an important, taxonomically conserved, motion-sensitive visual network.