Arable field margins are often sown with wildflowers to encourage pollinators and other beneficial or desirable insects such as bees and butterflies. Concern has been raised that these margins may be contaminated with systemic pesticides such as neonicotinoids used on the adjacent crop, and that this may negatively impact beneficial insects. The use of neonicotinoids has been linked to butterfly declines, and species such as the common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) that feed upon legumes commonly sown in arable field margins, may be exposed to such toxins. Here, we demonstrate that the larval food plants of P. icarus growing in an arable field margin adjacent to a wheat crop treated with the neonicotinoid clothianidin not only contain the pesticide at concentrations comparable to and sometimes higher than those found in foliage of treated crops (range 0.2–48 ppb) but also remain detectable at these levels for up to 21 months after sowing of the crop. Overall, our study demonstrates that nontarget herbivorous organisms in arable field margins are likely to be chronically exposed to neonicotinoids. Under laboratory conditions, exposure to clothianidin at 15 ppb (a field-realistic dose) or above reduced larval growth for the first 9 days of the experiment. Although there was evidence of clothianidin inducing mortality in larvae, with highest survival in control groups, the dose–response relationship was unclear. Our study suggests that larvae of this butterfly exhibit some deleterious sublethal and sometimes lethal impacts of exposure to clothianidin, but many larvae survive to adulthood even when exposed to high doses.

中文翻译：

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在蝴蝶幼虫发育虫胺场相关浓度的影响眼灰蝶属伊卡洛斯（鳞翅目，灰蝶科）

经常在田间边缘播种野花，以鼓励授粉媒介和其他有益或理想的昆虫，例如蜜蜂和蝴蝶。有人担心这些边缘可能会被系统性农药（例如相邻作物上使用的新烟碱类）污染，并且可能会对有益昆虫产生负面影响。新烟碱类化合物的使用与蝴蝶的衰落有关，并且以普通的蓝蝴蝶（Polyommatus icarus）为食的物种可能会接触到这种毒素，这些物种以通常在耕地边缘播种的豆科植物为食。在这里，我们证明了P. icarus的幼虫食用植物在与新烟碱类可比丁胺处理过的小麦作物相邻的耕地边缘种植的农药，不仅所含农药的浓度与处理过的农作物叶片中的农药相当（有时甚至更高）（范围为0.2–48 ppb），而且在这些水平下仍可检测播种后长达21个月。总体而言，我们的研究表明，可耕地边缘的非目标草食生物很可能长期暴露于新烟碱类物质中。在实验室条件下，在实验的前9天，暴露于15 ppb（现场实际剂量）或更高的可比丁可降低幼虫的生长。尽管有证据表明可比尼丁可诱导幼虫死亡，而对照组的存活率最高，但剂量-反应关系尚不清楚。