Influence of pre-exposure time on the toxicities of different temperature effect insecticides to Apolygus lucorum (Hemiptera: Miridae)

Temperature can have influences on the toxicities and efficacies of insecticides. Therefore, it is important to accurately evaluate the temperature effect (TE) on the toxicities of insecticides to insects. Previous studies have shown that the pre-exposure of insects to temperatures before their contact with insecticides, caused variations in their toxicities. However, most of these studies focused on the TE of the insecticides post-treatment. In this study we hypothesized that pre-exposure time of insect at different temperature can influence the toxicities of insecticides. We then evaluated the influence of different pre-exposure time (0, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 24 h) on toxicities of three different temperature effect insecticides (TEIs) to Apolygus lucorum at 15, 25 and 35°C respectively. We found that all toxicities of three TEIs to A. lucorum did not vary with pre-exposure time at 25°C. The LC(50) of hexaflumuron (positive TEI) only decreased (from 1800.06 to 237.40 mg/L) at 15°C, with an increase in the pre-exposure time. Whereas the LC(50) of β-cypermethrin (negative TEI) decreased from 225.43 to 60.79 mg/L at 35°C. These results also showed that the temperature coefficients (TCs) of the toxicities were influenced by pre-exposure time at different temperatures. For hexaflumuron, all the TCs at 25°C and 35°C decreased, as the pre-exposure time increased. For β-cypermethrin, the TCs decreased significantly only at 35°C. The toxicity and TCs of phoxim (non-effect TEI) showed no obvious fluctuation at the tested temperatures. These results showed that when the pre-exposure times were extended, the toxicities of the positive / negative TEI showed an increase at the temperature where the pest was less sensitive to the insecticides. These results can be applied to determine the toxicities / bioactivities of different insecticides accurately at different temperatures.