Performance studies on jumping behaviour in froglets exposed to commercial grade malathion

Aim: Behavioural changes of an organism are used as an indicator to assess the impact of neurotoxic compounds. Jumping performance of newly emerged froglets exposed to malathion at their tadpole stage was studied. Methodology: Tadpole groups were exposed to 1226, 2453 and 6133 µg l-1 malathion in laboratory mesocosms. When they emerged as froglet, their jumping performance was studied. Results: As malathion is an AChE inhibitor and produces negative effect on survival of tadpoles, we anticipated increased malathion exposure could result in reduction of jumping distance in metamorphs. However, as compared to control, the jumping distance increased with malathion concentrations and showed significant increase in the individuals treated with the highest concentration of malathion (LC25; F3,21 = 11.41, p = 0.0001). Interpretation: Malathion is toxic to tadpoles; however, it could result in concentration dependent jumping performance within the tested concentrations. Several other factors like tadpole density, temperature of the media, pesticide tolerance may act as determining factor, which requires further investigations.