The common perception that pesticides reduce or eliminate target insect species may not always hold. Jennifer Weathered and Edd Hammill report that the impacts of agricultural pesticides on assemblages of aquatic insects varied resulting in distinct ecological winners and losers within aquatic communities. While pesticides reduced many species, the evolution of pesticide resistance allowed the mosquito Wyeomyia abebala to actually benefit from the application of the pesticide-Dimenthoate. This benefit appeared to occur as pesticide-resistant mosquitoes were able to colonize habitats that had reduced numbers of predators and competitors due to the direct effects of Dimenthoate. Their results are reported in a recent issue of Oecologia.
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Source: Phys.org