Concentrations of heavy metals in the food, faeces, adults, and empty cocoons of Neodiprion sertifer (Hymenoptera, diprionidae)
- Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa (Finland) Water and Environment Research Institute, Helsinki (Finland)
Heavy metals have an adverse effect in polluted forest ecosystems situated in the vicinity of industrial plants and smelters, but little is known about their accumulation along food chains. In some studies, distinct accumulation has been observed from one trophic level to another, while in others no accumulation has been recorded. Insects can excrete heavy metals directly in the faeces, or avoid food containing high concentrations. They may also excrete these elements during metamorphosis in the larval skins including the gut epithelium, pupal remnants, cocoons, gall-walls, or in the droplet excreted by the imago just after hatching. Neodiprion sertifer (Geoffroy), the European pine sawfly, has mass-outbreaks at approximately ten-year intervals. It is a severe defoliator of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestries L.), usually exploiting only the previous years' needles. Eggs are laid in autumn, and the species overwinters at the egg stage in the needles. The aim of the present study was to analyze the proportion of copper, iron, nickel and cadmium in newly hatched adult insects, in their larval nutrition, faeces and empty cocoons. Larvae of N. sertifer were reared for this purpose on needles of varying heavy metal levels.
- OSTI ID:
- 6207750
- Journal Information:
- Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology; (USA), Vol. 45:1; ISSN 0007-4861
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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ADULTS
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
FECES
FOOD
METALS
QUANTITY RATIO
AIR POLLUTION
CADMIUM COMPOUNDS
COPPER COMPOUNDS
FOOD CHAINS
HYMENOPTERA
INSECTS
IRON COMPOUNDS
LARVAE
NICKEL COMPOUNDS
AGE GROUPS
ANIMALS
ARTHROPODS
BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS
BIOLOGICAL WASTES
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
ELEMENTS
INVERTEBRATES
MATERIALS
POLLUTION
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
WASTES
560300* - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology