## 2 Materials and Methods  
Sitink bugs (_E. heros_) were obtained from a long-term established colony initially collected from soybean fields within a 200 km radius from the central experimental station (23\({}^{\circ}\)21\({}^{\prime}\)17.9\({}^{\prime\prime}\) S 51\({}^{\circ}\)09\({}^{\prime}\)43.2\({}^{\prime\prime}\) W). The insects were not exposed to pesticides for at least five years. The insects were reared in polystyrene-crystal boxes (11 \(\times\) 11 cm \(\times\) 3.5 cm). The boxes contained pods of common pesticide-free beans (_Phaseolus vulgaris_ L.), peanuts (_Arachis hypogaaea_ L.), and soybean (_Glycine max_ (L.) [PERSON]) as food and a vial with moistened cotton for hydration. For this study, only fourth-instr nymphs (N4) were used. All procedures, from colony to bioassay steps, were performed in controlled environmental conditions (26 \(\pm\) 1 \({}^{\circ}\)C, 65 \(\pm\) 5% RH, and 14 h:10 h L:D photoperiod). A predetermined sublethal concentration (LC\({}_{30}\)) of pyriproxyfen (Tiger(r) 100 EC at LC\({}_{30}\) = 0.668 mL a. i. L\({}^{-1}\)) was applied using the same methodology described previously [21; 27]. The insecticide solution was diluted in pure distilled water (dH\({}_{2}\)O), and a check (control) treatment was established based on dH\({}_{2}\)O only. For each treatment, a single application of 1 mL was topically applied to a group of ten N4 _E. heros_ inside the PS-crystal box using a Potter tower (Burkard Scientific(r) BS00282, Uxbridge, London) at a working pressure of 82.7 kPa. Food and water were then added ad lib, as previously described. To standardize the results and avoid bias from malformed adults--a sublethal effect that is not the focus of this study--only morphologically intact, surviving adults were used in the subsequent experiments. At 0, 5, 10, and 15 days after emergence, live adult insects were isolated for two hours in dark containers lined with water-moistened paper towels. These age groups were chosen to represent key intervals within a mature adult lifespan, allowing for the characterization of a baseline metabolic profile. After this, a small puncture was carefully made in the ventral pronotum region with the aid of a fine-point entomological pin, making sure that no visceral organs were perforated. The hemolymph was gently extracted with a 0.5 \(\mu\)L capillarity micropipette (Minicaps(r), Hirschmann Laborgerate, Eberstadt, Germany), immediately blown into test tubes containing 100 \(\mu\)L of sulfuric acid PA, and agitated vigorously for homogenization. To determine baseline and post-exposure lipid and carbohydrate levels, the analyses were conducted according to the methodology proposed by [PERSON] [28; 29] and replicated by [PERSON] et al. [23]. To measure lipid contents, the sulfo-phospho-vanillin (SPV)-positive-reaction spectrometry method was performed. The tubes were incubated in a block heater (Dry-bath(r), Thermoline, Sydney, Australia) at 100 \({}^{\circ}\)C for 10 min, and then 1 mL of SPV solution (198 mg vanillin, 66.8 mL H\({}_{3}\)PO\({}_{4}\), 33.2 mL distilled water) was added. The samples were kept in the dark for 30 min before reading in a spectrophotometer (Biochrom ULTROSPEC II(r), LKB, Vienna, Austria) at 546 nm absorbance. To measure carbohydrate contents, the positive anthrone reaction spectrometry method was conducted. In each tube, 2 mL of anthrone solution (120 mg anthrone, 60 mL of H\({}_{2}\)SO\({}_{4}\), 30 mL of distilled water) was added, and subsequently, the samples were incubated at 100 \({}^{\circ}\)C for 8 min. Then, the samples were kept in the dark for 30 min before reading in the spectrophotometer at 585 nm absorbance. For comparison, standard Beer-Lambert calibration curves for lipids and carbohydrates were generated using the same relative methodologies with known amounts of cholesterol and glucose, respectively. For micro-element analyses, the hemolymph of 5-day-old adult _E. heros_ was extracted according to a previous methodology [21].