Susceptibility of a carabid beetle, Pterostichus oblongopunctatus fab., from a gradient of heavy metal pollution to additional stressors.

Insects inhabiting contaminated areas show increased susceptibility to other stressors, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether this phenomenon had a genetic basis. We investigated changes in susceptibility to food deprivation and insecticide (dimethoate) treatment of the ground beetle Pterostichus oblongopunctatus originating from four populations situated along a metal pollution gradient. To determine whether the increased susceptibility to additional stressors found in field-exposed animals from chronically metal-polluted sites had a genetic basis, our research was conducted on the second generation of laboratory-reared animals. There was no difference in susceptibility to the additional stressors indicating that the differences between populations observed in earlier studies do not have a genetic basis.