Sub-lethal doses of imidacloprid alter food selection in the invasive garden ant Lasius neglectus

Despite several restrictions to their use, neonicotinoid insecticides are still widely employed worldwide. Residual sub-lethal amounts of these chemicals can have detrimental effects on the behavior of non-target insects. Toxic effects on economically important species such as bees have been widely documented, but less is known about their toxic action on other social insects, such as ants. In this study, we assessed the effect of different sub-lethal doses of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid on the ability of colonies of the invasive ant Lasius neglectus to select the most profitable resource. We used Y-shaped mazes having an imidacloprid-polluted or an unpolluted sucrose solution on the two branches. Two sucrose (0.1 M, 0.5 M) and two imidacloprid (1 μg/ml, 10 μg/ml) concentrations were used. In parallel, we evaluated the marking activity of foragers who fed on the same solutions. We found that the 0.1 M sugar solution polluted with 1 μg/ml imidacloprid was significantly more frequently selected in binary choices experiments than the unpolluted resource. Moreover, the ingestion of the same combination of sugar and imidacloprid significantly increased the marking rate of foragers. The higher concentration of the pollutant had lower effects, probably because of the hormesis phenomenon. Results suggest that the lower sub-lethal dose of imidacloprid can lead ants to select again the polluted resource. This “active” selection of the pollutant may magnify the negative effects on the colonies. Due to their ecological role, any impairment of ant survival or behavior may have detrimental cascade effects on the whole ecosystem. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-022-24100-7.