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Pesticide exposure is considered a major driver of pollinator decline and
the use of neonicotinoid insecticides has been restricted by regulatory
authorities due to their risks for pollinators. Impacts of new alternative
sulfoximine-based compounds on solitary bees and their potential
interactive effects with other commonly applied pesticides in agriculture
remain unclear. Here, we conducted a highly replicated full-factorial
semi-field experiment with the solitary bee Osmia bicornis, an important
pollinator of crops and wild plants in Europe, and Phacelia tanacetifolia
as a model crop. We show that spray applications of the insecticide
sulfoxaflor (product Closer) and the fungicide azoxystrobin (product
Amistar), both alone and combined, had no significant negative impacts on
adult female survival or the production, mortality, sex ratio and body
size of offspring when sulfoxaflor was applied five days before crop
flowering. Our results indicate that for O. bicornis (1) the risk of
adverse impacts of sulfoxaflor (Closer) on fitness is small when applied
at least five days before crop flowering and (2) that azoxystrobin
(Amistar) has a low potential of exacerbating sulfoxaflor effects under
field-realistic conditions.
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