DOI: 10.5061/dryad.vx0k6dk2v
title: Neonicotinoid insecticides can pose a severe threat to grassland plant bug communities

description: Although pesticides have been proposed as one of the main causes of insect
 decline, there are still few studies assessing their effects on non-target
 species under field conditions. Here we investigated the effects of the
 neonicotinoid insecticide Mospilan®SG (active ingredient acetamiprid) on
 plant bugs (Heteroptera: Miridae), a dominant group of European grassland
 insect communities. In a controlled field study, the abundance of three
 focal species was reduced by up to 92% two days after field exposure at
 concentrations expected at field margins, with mortality varying among
 species. Follow-up feeding assays with insecticide-treated host plants in
 the greenhouse and controlled dose-response laboratory assays confirmed
 the strong negative effects on non-target species. Strikingly, when
 comparing the lethal dose 50 derived from Mospilan®SG with a value
 reported for honeybees using another acetamiprid formulation, the
 insecticide was over 11,000 times more toxic to plant bugs than to
 honeybees. In addition, males were 20 times more sensitive than females in
 two tested species. Thus, continuous exposure to this neonicotinoid may
 reduce plant bug populations and promote insecticide-tolerant species,
 altering community composition. We suggest that sex-specific sensitivity
 be considered in risk assessment and conclude that the true risk to
 non-target insects is currently greatly underestimated.
description: # Neonicotinoid insecticides can pose a severe threat to grassland plant
 bug communities ## General information ## Dataset Title Neonicotinoid
 insecticides can poses a severe threat to grassland plant bug communities
 ## Date of Data Collection 2022-2023 ## Contributors Jan Erik
 Sedlmeier(1)*, Ingo Grass(3,7), Prasanth Bendalam(1), Birgit Höglinger(2),
 Frank Walker(2), Daniel Gerhard(4), Hans-Peter Piepho(5), Carsten A.
 Brühl(6) and Georg Petschenka(1,7)* 1 Applied Entomology, University of
 Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany 2 Analytical Chemistry, University of
 Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany 3 Ecology of Tropical Agricultural Systems,
 University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany 4 School of Mathematics and
 Statistics, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand 5
 Biostatistics, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany 6 Community
 Ecology & Ecotoxicology, Rhineland-Palatinate University of Technology
 Kaiserslautern-Landau, Landau, Germany 7 KomBioTa – Center for
 Biodiversity and Integrative Taxonomy, University of Hohenheim and State
 Museum of Natural History, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany *Corresponding
 authors: Jan Erik Sedlmeier -&gt;
 [jan.sedlmeier@uni-hohenheim.de](mailto:jan.sedlmeier@uni-hohenheim.de)
 Georg Petschenka -&gt;
 [georg.petschenka@uni-hohenheim.de](mailto:georg.petschenka@uni-hohenheim.de) ## Overview This dataset contains all raw data used in our research paper. The dataset is split into two parts: (1) all raw data presented in one multi-sheet file, (2) all data used to generate the figures presented in the main manuscript and the supplement. Note that several figures may be sourced from the same main dataset presented in (1) but might only show parts of the collected data. For this reason, the data shown only in the graphs are presented in a separate file using reduced tables. ## Data Formats All data is presented in Excel files. Data is either decimal (analytical measurements of substances) or non-negative integers (count data of plant bugs). ## Files Below is a description of all the Excel files and sheets they contain. Names and shortcuts are explained. --- ### Full\_data.xlsx \** Sheet 1: "Exposure analysis_field trial" *Description: Amount of substance (Acetamiprid / Acetamiprid-N-Desmethyl) in plant tissue sampled in the field trial. Method: LC-MS analysis *Table Columns* ``` *PlotID* - Unique identifier for each field enclosure *SamplingID* - Unique identifier for each sampling event *Sampling Date* - Date of sampling *Days After Application* - Number of days after insecticide application inside field enclosures *Treatment* - Name of the treatment *Substance* - Name of the substance analysed *Amount [ng/g]* - Amount of substance detected in plant samples as ng per g plant tissue ``` \** Sheet 2: "Exposure analysis_greenhouse" *Description: Amount of substance (Acetamiprid / Acetamiprid-N-Desmethyl) in plant tissue sampled from the insecticide treated plants in the greenhouse trial. Method: LC-MS analysis *Table Columns* ``` *SampleID* - Unique identifier for each plant sample *Days After Application* - Number of days after insecticide application *Treatment* - Name of the treatment *Substance* - Name of the substance analysed *Amount [ng/g]* - Amount of substance detected in plant samples as ng per g plant tissue ``` \** Sheet 3: "Field experiment_all plant bugs" *Description: Count data of plant bugs from the field experiment. Data collection method: sweep netting *Table Columns* ``` *date* - Date of sampling *sampling* - Unique identifier for each sampling event *days after application* - umber of days after insecticide application inside field enclosures *treatment* - Name of the treatment *block* - Unique identifier for the respective block the field enclosure is assigned to (randomised block design) *plot* - Unique identifier for the field enclosure, the sample is taken from *count_imagines* - Number of plant bug imagines sampled *count_nymphs* - Number of plant bug nymphs sampled *miridae_total* - Combined number of nymphas and imagines sampled ``` \** Sheet 4: "Field experiment_species" *Description: Count data of plant bugs from the field experiment for three focal species. Data collection method: sweep netting *Table Columns* ``` *date* - Date of sampling *treatment* - Name of the treatment *sampling* - Unique identifier for each sampling event *days after application* - umber of days after insecticide application inside field enclosures *plot* - Unique identifier for the field enclosure, the sample is taken from *block* - Unique identifier for the respective block the field enclosure is assigned to (randomised block design) *species* - Species name *count* - Number of plant bug imagines sampled ``` \** Sheet 5: "Greenhouse_survival data" *Description: Survival data of plant bugs for three focal species exposed to insecticide treated host plants. *Table Columns* ``` *treatment* - Name of the treatment *pot* - Unique identifier for the planting pot the specimens were placed on *block* - Unique identifier for the respective block the planting pot was assigned to (based on the experimental block design) *total* - Total number of individuals of the respective species released into the planting pot at the start of the experiment *days after application* - umber of days after insecticide application inside field enclosures *species* - Species name *alive* - Number of alive individuals of the respective species at the end of the experiment ``` \** Sheet 6: "laboratory_species" *Description: Mortality data from the insecticide dose-response assays with three focal species *Table Columns* ``` *Date* - Date of data collection *Treatment* - Name of the treatment applied topically *Concentration* - Concentration of insecticide applied topically in ng/μl *Cohort* - Unique identifier for the cohort, i.e. the repitition of the assay *ReplicateID* - Unique identifier for the individual experimental replicate (i.e. petri dish) *Species* - Species name *total* - Total number of plant bug individuals in this replicate *dead_total_24* - Number of dead individuals after 24 hrs ``` \** Sheet 7: "Laboratory_species & sex" *Description: Mortality data from the insecticide dose-response assays with three focal species by sex. Note that each replicate is present twice: one line for male-, one for female specimens who were kept inside the same replicate (i.e. plastic cup) in order to generate separate dose-response curves for males and females of the same species. *Table Columns* ``` *Date* - Date of data collection *Treatment* - Name of the treatment applied topically *concentration* - Concentration of insecticide applied topically in ng/μl *Cohort* - Unique identifier for the cohort, i.e. the repitition of the assay *ReplicateID* - Unique identifier for the individual experimental replicate (i.e. petri dish) *Species* - Species name *total* - Total number of plant bug individuals in this replicate *total_sex* - Total number of individuals with respect to the sex listed in column *sex* *male* - Number of male specimens in this replicate *female* - Number of female specimens in this replicate *dead_male_24hrs* - Number of dead male individuals after 24 hrs *dead_female_24hrs* - Number of dead female individuals after 24 hrs *sex* - Sex corresponding to the number listed in column *total_sex* *dead_n24* - Number of dead individuals corresponding to the entry in column *sex* *dead_total_24* - Number of dead individuals after 24 hrs ``` ### Figure\_data.xlsx \** Sheet 1: "Figure 2_panel a" *Description: Count data of plant bugs from the field experiment from sampling 1 only (= two days after treatment application). Data collection method: sweep netting *Table Columns* ``` *date* - Date of sampling *treatment* - Name of the treatment *count_imagines* - Number of plant bug imagines sampled *count_nymphs* - Number of plant bug nymphs sampled *miridae_total* - Combined number of nymphas and imagines sampled ``` \** Sheet 2: "Figure 2_panel b" *Description: Count data of plant bugs from the field experiment for three focal species from sampling 1 only (= two days after treatment application). Data collection method: sweep netting *Table Columns* ``` *date* - Date of sampling *treatment* - Name of the treatment *species* - Species name *count* - Number of plant bug imagines sampled ``` \** Sheet 3: "Figure 3" *Description: Count data of plant bugs from the field experiment for three focal species for all samplings. Data collection method: sweep netting *Table Columns* ``` *date* - Date of sampling *treatment* - Name of the treatment *sampling* - Unique identifier for each sampling event *species* - Species name *count* - Number of plant bug imagines sampled ``` \** Sheet 4: "Figure 4" *Description: Survival data of plant bugs for three focal species exposed to insecticide treated host plants. *Table Columns* ``` *treatment* - Name of the treatment *species* - Species name *total* - Total number of individuals of the respective species released into the planting pot at the start of the experiment *alive* - Number of alive individuals of the respective species at the end of the experiment ``` \** Sheet 5: "Figure 5_panel a" *Description: Mortality data from the insecticide dose-response assays with three focal species *Table Columns* ``` *Treatment* - Name of the treatment applied topically *concentration* - Concentration of insecticide applied topically in ng/μl *Species* - Species name *total* - Total number of plant bug individuals in this replicate *dead_total_24* - Number of dead individuals after 24 hrs ``` \** Sheet 6: "Figure 5_panel b, c, d" *Description: Mortality data from the insecticide dose-response assays with three focal species by sex. Note that each replicate is present twice: one line for male-, one for female specimens who were kept inside the same replicate (i.e. plastic cup) in order to generate separate dose-response curves for males and females of the same species. *Table Columns* ``` *Treatment* - Name of the treatment applied topically *concentration* - Concentration of insecticide applied topically in ng/μl *Species* - Species name *sex* - Sex corresponding to the number listed in column *total_sex* *total_sex* - Total number of individuals with respect to the sex listed in column *sex* *dead_n24* - Number of dead individuals corresponding to the entry in column *sex* ``` \** Sheet 7: "Supplementary figure S2" *Description: Count data of plant bugs from the field experiment for three focal species for all samplings from the control only. Data collection method: sweep netting *Table Columns* ``` *treatment* - Name of the treatment *days after application* - Number of days after insecticide application inside field enclosures *species* - Species name *count* - Number of plant bug imagines sampled ``` \** Sheet 8: "Supplementary figure S3" *Description: Amount of substance (Acetamiprid / Acetamiprid-N-Desmethyl) in plant tissue sampled in the field trial. Method: LC-MS analysis *Table Columns* ``` *Days After Application* - Number of days after insecticide application inside field enclosures *Treatment* - Name of the treatment *Substance* - Name of the substance analysed *Amount [ng/g]* - Amount of substance detected in plant samples as ng per g plant tissue ``` \** Sheet 9: "Supplementary figure S4" *Description: Amount of substance (Acetamiprid / Acetamiprid-N-Desmethyl) in plant tissue sampled from the insecticide treated plants (30% Mospilan®SG) in the greenhouse trial. Method: LC-MS analysis *Table Columns* ``` *Substance* - Name of the substance analysed *Amount [ng/g]* - Amount of substance detected in plant samples as ng per g plant tissue ```