The impacts of metals and metalloids on insect behavior

Abstract In toxicology studies, the use of death as an endpoint often fails to capture the effects a pollutant has on disruptions of ecosystem services by changing an animal’s behavior. Many toxicants can cause population extinctions of insect species at concentrations well below the EC 25 , EC 50 , or EC 90 concentrations traditionally reported from short‐term bioassays. A surprising number of species cannot detect metal and metalloid contamination, and do not always avoid food with significant metal concentrations. This frequently leads to modified ingestion, locomotor, and reproductive behaviors. For example, some species show a tendency to increase locomotor behaviors to escape from locations with elevated metal pollution, whereas other insects greatly decrease all movements unrelated to feeding. Still others exhibit behaviors resulting in increased susceptibility to predation, including a positive phototaxis causing immatures to move to exposed positions. For purposes of reproduction, the inability to avoid even moderately polluted sites when ovipositing can lead to egg loss and reduced fitness of offspring. Ultimately, impaired behaviors result in a general reduction in population sizes and species diversity at contaminated sites, the exceptions being those species tolerating contamination that become dominant. Regardless, ecosystem services, such as herbivory, detritus reduction, or food production for higher trophic levels, are disrupted. This review evaluates the effects of metal and metalloid pollution on insect behaviors in both terrestrial and aquatic systems reported in a diverse literature scattered across many scientific disciplines. Behaviors are grouped by ingestion, taxis, and oviposition. We conclude that understanding how insect behavior is modified is necessary to assess the full scope and importance of metal and metalloid contamination.