One important point made by this study is that toxicity differs between adult and larval bees.  This possibility has been pointed out many times, but here there is some new proof.  A chemical that doesn't overtly kill adult bees in the classic "LD50" test (and we all know that is flawed, because many chemicals cause death later than the period observed for LD50 trial parameters) may nevertheless substantially reduce the hive's vitality because brood is dying off.  In this paper, concentrations of a compound that doesn't overtly bother adults is shown to be toxic to larvae, and vice versa.

Another important observation made in the paper is that so-called "inert" ingredients have a severe impact on larval mortality.  In this case they just tested one "inert" but the implication is that all of them should be included in studies that determine the effects on whole colonies of chemical treatments.

I don't have an issue with the concentrations of compounds they chose for this study, based on the more important information the paper offers (above), and also because I understand the authors' rationale for the concentrations they used.  However, I could make an argument on the issue of "why these concentrations are reasonable for the test parameters" if somebody actually wants to read it!!!

Christina


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