© Benaki Phytopathological Institute
1
Department of Entomology and Agricultural Zoolo-
gy, Benaki Phytopathological Institute, 8 St. Delta Str.,
GR-145 61 Kifissia, Attica, Greece
2
Laboratory of Agricultural Zoology and Entomolo-
gy, Agricultural University of Athens, 75 Iera odos Str.,
GR-118 55 Athens, Greece
* Corresponding author:
Hellenic Plant Protection Journal
7:
43-51, 2014
Toxicity assessment of insecticides to nymphs and adults of
Calliptamus barbarus barbarus
Costa (Orthoptera: Acrididae)
S.A. Antonatos
1,2*
and N.G. Emmanouel
2
Summary
The toxicity of various insecticides to nymphs and adults of
Calliptamus barbarus barba-
rus
(Orthoptera: Acrididae) was studied in laboratory bioassays. The insecticides used were imidaclo-
prid, spinosad, alpha cypermethrin, lambda cyhalothrin, diflubenzuron and azadirachtin. Lambda cy-
halothrin was used only in bioassays with adult grasshoppers whereas diflubenzuron and azadirachtin
were used only in bioassays with grasshopper nymphs. The insecticide with the most toxic effect on
nymphs and adults of
C. barbarus barbarus
was spinosad followed by imidacloprid and alpha cyper-
methrin. Ten days after treatment the mortalities obtained from those three insecticides were 98.5%,
89.1% and 81.3% in nymphs and 98.4%, 71.9% and 67.2% in adults, respectively. The toxicity of lamb-
da cyhalothrin to the grasshopper adults was moderate, reaching 43.8% mortality ten days after their
exposure. Diflubenzuron and azadirachtin provided moderate and reduced level of mortality, respec-
tively, to the grasshopper nymphs. The mortalities obtained from these insecticides ten days after
treatment were 53.1% and 29.7%, respectively. The same pattern was observed for the lethal time with
spinosad having the most rapid action.
Additional keywords
: grasshoppers, insecticides, lethal time, toxic effect
Introduction
Several grasshopper species of
Calliptamus
are widely distributed throughout the coun-
tries of the Mediterranean basin (Larrosa
et
al.
, 2008; Wilps
et al.
, 2002; Merton, 1959)
and damages on crops have often been re-
ported (Aragón
et al.
, 2013).
Calliptamus bar-
barus barbarus
(Costa, 1836) along with the
closely related species
Calliptamus italicus
(Linnaeus, 1758) are very common in Greece
(Willemse, 1984). They are highly polyphago-
us and they can feed on a broad spectrum of
plants belonging to the families Asteraceae,
Papilionaceae, Malvaceae, Poaceae, Fabace-
ae, Solanaceae, Brassicaceae as well as on
many fruit trees (Bei-Bienco and Mishchen-
ko, 1963). In many cases, heavy attack on
various crops by these grasshoppers result-
ed in the declaration of large areas under a
special regime by the state where sprayings
with insecticides were conducted. This re-
sults in an increased cost of crop production
and can create serious ecological problems.
In high population densities, grasshop-
pers consume large amounts of plant mass
(Weiland
et al.
, 2002; Antonatos
et al.
, 2013).
Additionally, they often cut plant parts with-
out consuming them (Holmberg and Hard-
man, 1984) and contaminate with their bod-
ies and faecal material the harvested crops
(Amarasekare and Edelson, 2004). Numer-
ous insect predators of orthopterans, which
may be useful in grasshoppers’ control, have
been reported in old studies (Merton, 1959;
Dempster, 1957), however control of grass-
hopers nowadays depends mainly on appli-
cation of insecticides.
Several insecticides (organochlorine, or-
ganophosphate or carbamate) have been
used successfully for the chemical control of
grasshoppers (Tharp
et al.
, 2000; Weiland
et
al.
, 2002) but due to change in pesticide reg-
