Endocrine disruption in soil invertebrates

In the past years, it has been observed that some compounds present in our environment can disturb the reproduction and development of animals like fishes, birds, or reptiles by interfering with their endocrine system. Indeed, these endocrine disrupting compounds (EDC) can mimic or antagonize the effects of hormones, alter the pattern of synthesis and metabolism of hormones or modify hormone receptor levels. These substances represent a risk for wildlife, and possibly for humans. Up to now, endocrine disruption was mainly evaluated for vertebrates and aquatic organisms and for oestrogeniclike substances. However, soil invertebrates, which play an important role in soil functioning, have rarely been considered. Moreover, as their endocrine system differs substantially from those of vertebrates (estrogens do not seem to regulate endocrine functions in invertebrates), other substances than can mimic invertebrate hormones should be taken into account. In this sense, insect growth regulators (IGR), which are third generation insecticides specially developed to interfere with insect endocrine system, are interesting compounds. These substances are supposed to have a high specificity for insect pest and a low toxicity for non-target organisms. In the first part of this study, the sublethal effects of six IGR (methoprene, fenoxycarb, precocene II, tebufenozide, hexaflumuron and teflubenzuron) were evaluated on the non-target soil arthropod Folsomia candida. The collembola F. candida represents an integral and beneficial part of the soil ecosystem. It is an euedaphic (subsurface) species which plays an important role in soil respiration and decomposition processes and is therefore vulnerable to the effects of soil contamination. This ecologically relevant organism is one of the most appropriate invertebrate test species for the assessment of environmental quality. It is recommended as test organism by the international standard ISO 11267. The 28-days reproduction tests conducted according to this protocol show that F. candida is affected by the chosen IGR. The most toxic compounds were the two chitin synthesis inhibitors, teflubenzuron and hexaflumuron, with an EC50 of 0.05 mg/kg (dw) for teflubenzuron and an EC50 of 0.6 mg/kg for hexaflumuron. These concentrations are probably environmentally relevant (toxicity/exposure ratios