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From Survival to Reproduction– Developmental Plasticity to Microplastics in a Field Cricket
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Field crickets fed diets containing nylon microplastic filaments at ecologically relevant concentrations showed impacts on survival, body composition, and reproductive tissue investment measured from hatchling to adulthood. Because plastic pollution originates on land and insects are foundational to terrestrial food webs, this study provides important early evidence of how microplastic ingestion propagates through land-based ecosystems.
Microplastics (MPs) pollute environments worldwide, and they are toxic to many aquatic and marine animals. Yet, plastics pollution originates on land, so terrestrial animals may be particularly vulnerable to MPs. This study investigates the developmental plasticity of a terrestrial insect (variable field cricket, Gryllus lineaticeps) in response to three levels of nylon MP filaments within their diet. From hatchling stage to adulthood, crickets were fed a diet with no added MPs (control), 0.6% w/w MPs added (low), or 1.2% MPs w/w added (high). Several fitness-related traits were then measured at adulthood: survival, developmental rate, body mass and size, investment into reproductive and somatic tissues, and flight capacity. This study provides insight into the potential effects of MP exposure in an insect to assess the impact of MP pollution in terrestrial ecosystems.
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Developmental Effects of Microplastic Ingestion on the Tropical House Cricket Gryllodes sigillatus
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Researchers fed crickets diets containing different concentrations of polyethylene microbeads and polyester microfibers, finding that both types reduced body weight gain and development compared to controls. This is one of the few studies on microplastic effects on terrestrial insects, which are important for food webs, pollination, and nutrient cycling.
Ingestion of microplastic fibres, but not microplastic beads, impacts growth rates in the tropical house cricket Gryllodes sigillatus
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Researchers exposed tropical house crickets (Gryllodes sigillatus) from hatching to adulthood to diets containing polyethylene microplastic fibers or beads at multiple concentrations, finding that fiber ingestion significantly impaired growth rates while bead ingestion did not, suggesting that plastic morphology determines gut interaction severity and downstream fitness impacts in terrestrial insects.
Integrating microplastics into thermal biology in an insect
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Researchers fed field crickets nylon microfilaments at different temperatures to assess how warming and microplastic exposure interact, finding that while warmer animals ate more, they did not absorb more microplastics, but microplastic consumption shifted resource allocation toward self-maintenance at the expense of desiccation tolerance and reproduction.
The Fate of Microplastics Ingested by Gryllodes sigillatus
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This thesis investigated the fate of microplastics ingested by the banded cricket (Gryllodes sigillatus), developing a new protocol for extracting and quantifying microplastics from insect tissues. The study also explored how crickets process and potentially fragment ingested plastic particles.
Ingestion of Microplastic Fibres, But Not Microplastic Beads, Impacts Growth Rates in the Tropical House Cricket Gryllodes Sigillatus
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Researchers fed microplastic fibers and beads to tropical house crickets over their development to compare the effects of different plastic shapes on growth. They found that fiber ingestion significantly reduced growth rates, while bead ingestion had no measurable impact. The study suggests that the shape of microplastic particles matters for their biological effects, with fibers potentially causing more harm to terrestrial insects than spherical particles.
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