The Cumulative Toxicity of Diniteo-O-cresol applied in Small Doses to Locusts

Summary

By the method of attacking flying swarms of locusts with insecticides sprayed directly into the swarm by relays of light aircraft, a proportion of the swarm receives a sub-lethal dose from each sortie. For successful operation it is essential that a substantial contribution to the final mortality should be produced by the accumulation of these sub-lethal doses on individual insects over a period of time. The object of the present experiments was to determine whether such doses applied at intervals are wholly additive in their effects. The poison used was dinitro-o-cresol (Mk. IV DNC solution) and to shorten the experimental procedure, the locusts, Schistocerca gregaria (Forsk.) and Locusta migratoria migratorioides (R. & F.), were dosed by means of a single drop of poison applied to the ventral surface of the abdomen by a micro-drop syringe.

When locusts are given regular daily doses of DNC the doses are not wholly cumulative in their effect. After the second or third day the lethal effect of each dose becomes steadily less, and after the fourth or fifth day it tends to zero, representing a steady state in which the rates of application and loss of insecticidal activity in the survivors are equal.

When the dose is applied in two halves with various time intervals between them, the cumulative effect during the first 24 hours is less in S. gregaria than in L. migratoria. In the latter species it is possible that sensitisation occurs. After three days, the first half-dose has fallen to an estimated 20 per cent, of its initial effectiveness in each species.

These two species are equally susceptible to a single dose expressed as μg. DNC/g. body weight. The females are more resistant than the males to daily doses (relative susceptibility in S. gregaria, 1·54) but probably not to single doses (relative susceptibility, 1·09).

Resistance to a daily dose correlates roughly with resistance to a single dose, the total dose required to produce 50 per cent, mortality in four days being about twice the LD50 for a single dose.

If flight activity does not materially alter the present results, it is evident that the non-cumulative effects of sub-lethal doses could cause a serious loss in the efficiency of an air-spray operation if it were unduly prolonged. Thus a quantity of insecticide sufficient to kill over 99 per cent, of the locusts if applied as a single dose would kill less than 40 per cent, if the application were spread over four days.