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Side Effect of Synthetic Pesticides on Spiders

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Spider Ecophysiology

Abstract

Spiders that occur in agroecosystems are often heavily affected by pesticide applications. Insecticides and acaricides, when applied at the recommended concentration and dose, usually cause acute toxicity, while herbicides and fungicides are relatively harmless. Direct toxicity has been studied in a number of spider species with respect to a number of different formulations, though not as many as in other natural enemies. With the advent of selective pesticides, recent studies focus on their sublethal effects. These have so far been studied in 21 species of spiders using 26 formulations (acaricides, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides). Sublethal doses affect a number of life-history traits: movement, dispersal, predation rate, web building, mating, oviposition, fecundity, ontogenetic development, defence, and physiological processes such as enzymatic activities and water loss. Examples of each of these effects are presented. The most frequent evidence of sublethal effects has been gathered for prey consumption. There is also some, though limited, evidence for hormesis or improved performance. Future toxicology research should be concentrated more on sublethal effects and the development of a uniform protocol for sublethal toxicity assessment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany and Zoology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

    Stano Pekár

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  1. Stano Pekár
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Correspondence to Stano Pekár .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Baltzerstr. 6, Bern, 3012, Switzerland

    Wolfgang Nentwig

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Pekár, S. (2013). Side Effect of Synthetic Pesticides on Spiders. In: Nentwig, W. (eds) Spider Ecophysiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33989-9_31

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