New study: Neonicotinoid-treated seed hurts butterfly communities

Figure 1 from paper, showing pest control technology in North American corn and soybean production, targeting either weeds or insect pests, for pre-1995 and post-1995 time periods. Hypothesized impact refers to hypothesized impact on butterfly metrics.

June 2024: A research paper titled "Insecticides, more than herbicides, land use, and climate, are associated with declines in butterfly species richness and abundance in the American Midwest" has been published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE. The butterfly data for this study came from monitoring surveys conducted by four volunteer programs associated with the North American Butterfly Monitoring Network. The full paper is available online at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0304319.