Commercial photocatalyst changes the behavior of Formica pratensis and Formica polyctena

Nanosized materials are currently applied nearly everywhere and nanotechnology is part of our everyday life. To solve important issues such as clean air, water and energy semiconductive nanoparticles showed the most promising solutions. TiO2 is among those semiconductors which are widely applied and studied in water purification processes by photocatalytic means. Despite its abundance in applications, the ecotoxicological investigations are relatively rare and none of these address insect behaviour. Therefore, in the present study the impact of a well-known commercial TiO2 (Evonik Aeroxide P25) was investigated on the interspecific behaviour of two territorial ant species (Formica polyctena and Formica pratensis). Changes in the behaviour of the ants were observed using aggressivity assays. We have found that the results of these tests can be linked to the changes observed in the cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profile of the ants, as the applied semiconductor manifested its photocatalytic activity and oxidized the hydrocarbons to corresponding alcohols, aldehydes and carboxylic acids, altering the CHC profile, and thus interfering with species recognition. The results are relevant in terms of the fate of nanoparticles. As more and more technologies are using them, a significant portion of these entities are photoactive materials as well and they can interact with insects using chemical communication channels (e.g. ants and maybe bees as well).

This article is Open Access

Please wait while we load your content... Something went wrong. Try again?

留言 (0)

沒有登入
gif