Oral Toxicity of Fipronil Insecticide Against the Stingless Bee Melipona scutellaris (Latreille, 1811)

Abstract

For a better evaluation of the model using Apis mellifera in toxicology studies with insecticides, the oral acute toxicity of the insecticide fipronil against the stingless bee Melipona scutellaris was determined. The results showed that fipronil was highly toxic to M. scutellaris, with a calculated LC50 (48 h) value of 0.011 ng a.i./mu L of sucrose solution and an estimated oral LD50 (48 h) of 0.6 ng a.i./bee. Our results showed that M. scutellaris bee is more sensitive to fipronil than the model specie A. mellifera.