Neurofunctional effects of sublethal pesticide exposure in insects

Pesticides play an important role in food production, however the effect they have on animals that are not targeted by them are not well understood. Often a mixture of different insecticides, fungicides and herbicides is used to protect crops from harmful organisms, however, not all organisms are harmful to the crops, and some are even very important for the pollination and our ecosystems.
The goal of this project is to investigate the effect of two insecticides a fungicide on different non-target insect species. We plan to study three different species, e.g. hoverflies, Eristalis tenax, bumblebees, Bombus terrestris, and the peacock butterfly, Inachis io. We will use behavioural and electrophysiological experiments to assess the effect of the individual compounds and their mixtures on these species.