Ref ID : 6076
J. Stenersen, E. Brekke, and F. Engelstad; Earthworms for toxicity testing; Species differences in response towards cholinesterase inhibiting insecticides. Soil Biol.Biochem. 24(12):1761-1764, 1992
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The toxicity of cholinesterase (ChE) inhibiting pesticides towards Eisenia andrei, E. fetida and E. veneta has been tested by using the standard OECD tests. The results are partly explained by in vitro and in vivo ChE inhibition patterns. Each of the three species had at least two cholinesterases having different bimolecular inhibition constants for all inhibitors tested. Carbaryl discriminated completely between different cholinesterases in both E. andrei and E. fetida because one of the ChEs was completely resistant, (E2); the other two (E1a and E1b) were very sensitive, but the bimolecular constants were sufficiently different to discriminate between them. Two ChEs could be distinguished in E. veneta by carbaryl. The inhibition constants were, however, smaller than that found in the two other species. Carbaryl is known to be a strong poison for most earthworms. E. andrei and E. fetida seem to be exceptions. Therefore the use of E. veneta, which is more similar to other earthworm species, is recommended as a test organism towards cholinesterase-inhibiting for earthworms in general.