Toxicidade de Mandipropamida sobre Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae).

Abstract

Several crops of agricultural importance depend on pollination by honey bee Apis mel- lifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae), such as cucurbits. However, during its cultivation it is necessary to use chemical control of pests and diseases, a fact that can have a nega- tive impact on pollinators, since bees can come into contact with pesticides basically in three different ways, which are direct contact with droplets during spraying, contact on residuals in the plants and ingestion of contaminated food. Therefore, the aim was to evaluate the toxicity of the fungicide Mandipropamide on the Africanized bee A. mel- lifera, through direct spraying on the bees and supplying food contaminated with fun- gicide. This study was carried out at the Entomology Laboratory of the Center for Agro- Food Science and Technology (CCTA) of the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), Pombal - PB. Adult workers of A. mellifera were used, with two different bio- assays being carried out, corresponding to two forms of exposure: direct spraying on adult bees and supply of food contaminated by the fungicide Mandipropamide, at the minimum doses (0.1 g i.a/L ) and maximum (0.15g i.a/L) recommended by the manu- facturer. After contact with the fungicide, the mortality and behavior of the bees were evaluated during a period of 48 hours. For the bees that survived, the ability to fly was evaluated. Regardless of the mode of exposure and evaluated dose, it was observed that the fungicide caused mortality below 20% and median lethal time (TL50) of 437.2 hours in the mode of exposure ingestion of contaminated diet and 324.1 hours via spraying direct. Regarding flight capacity, there was a statistical difference between the absolute control and the dose of 0.15g i.a./L of the fungicide for the mode of expo- sure ingestion of contaminated food, which the bees exposed to the fungicide reached a lower height maximum flight. Regardless of dose and mode of exposure, the fungi- cide Mandipropamide has little toxic effect on adult workers of A. mellifera. However, at the highest evaluated dose and in the mode of exposure via ingestion of contami- nated food, it caused a slight reduction in the flight capacity of the bees.