Systemic insecticides, such as neonicotinoids, are a major contributor towards beneficial insect declines. This has led to bans and restrictions on neonicotinoid use globally, most noticeably in the European Union, where four commonly used neonicotinoids (imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, clothianidin and thiacloprid) are banned from outside agricultural use. While this might seem like a victory for conservation, restrictions on neonicotinoid use will only benefit insect populations if newly emerging insecticides do not have similar negative impacts on beneficial insects. Flupyradifurone and sulfoxaflor are two novel insecticides that have been registered for use globally, including within the European Union. These novel insecticides differ in their chemical class, but share the same mode of action as neonicotinoids, raising the question as to whether they have similar sub-lethal impacts on beneficial insects. Here, we conducted a systematic literature search of the potential sub-lethal impacts of these novel insecticides on beneficial insects, quantifying these effects with a meta-analysis. We demonstrate that both flupyradifurone and sulfoxaflor have significant sub-lethal impacts on beneficial insects at field-realistic levels of exposure. These results confirm that bans on neonicotinoid use will only protect beneficial insects if paired with significant changes to the agrochemical regulatory process. A failure to modify the regulatory process will result in a continued decline of beneficial insects and the ecosystem services on which global food production relies.

中文翻译：

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新型杀虫剂会对有益昆虫构成威胁吗？


内吸性杀虫剂，例如新烟碱类杀虫剂，是导致有益昆虫减少的主要原因。这导致全球禁止和限制新烟碱类药物的使用，尤其是在欧盟，四种常用的新烟碱类药物（吡虫啉、噻虫嗪、噻虫胺和噻虫啉）被禁止在农业以外使用。虽然这似乎是保护方面的胜利，但只有当新出现的杀虫剂不会对有益昆虫产生类似的负面影响时，限制新烟碱类杀虫剂的使用才会有利于昆虫种群。氟吡呋酮和氟啶虫胺是两种新型杀虫剂，已在包括欧盟在内的全球范围内注册使用。这些新型杀虫剂的化学类别不同，但与新烟碱类杀虫剂具有相同的作用方式，这就提出了它们是否对有益昆虫具有类似的亚致死影响的问题。在这里，我们对这些新型杀虫剂对有益昆虫的潜在亚致死影响进行了系统的文献检索，并通过荟萃分析量化了这些影响。我们证明，氟吡呋酮和氟啶虫胺在实际暴露水平下对有益昆虫具有显着的亚致死影响。这些结果证实，只有在农用化学品监管过程发生重大变化的情况下，禁止使用新烟碱类杀虫剂才能保护有益昆虫。如果未能修改监管程序，将导致全球粮食生产所依赖的有益昆虫和生态系统服务持续减少。