Response of the green June beetle and its gut microbiome to RDX and phenanthrene

Abstract

Green June beetles are a cosmopolitan pest in the United States. Adults are voracious consumers of tree and vine fruit, while their larvae can dam-age and inadvertently consume root systems, particularly those of grasses, as they move through the soil and forage for detritus. Larvae ingest and process large volumes of soil while in the process of feeding. Due to their intimate contact with the soil it was hypothesized that soil contaminants that are known animal toxins would perturb the larval and affect their overall health and survival. Studies of this kind are important contribu-tions to the development of new model organisms and our understanding of interactions between the environment, contaminants, gut microbiome, and animal development, health, and survival. It is important to continue to develop relevant model organisms for monitoring toxicity as regulations for working with vertebrates becomes more prohibitive. In this study green June beetle larvae were exposed to RDX and phenanthrene through-out their entire soil-bound development, starting within the first few days of hatching through to their emergence as adults. The overall findings included that even at high concentrations, RDX and phenanthrene (25 ppm) exerted no significant effect on body weight or survival. Also, there was lit-tle apparent effect of RDX and phenanthrene on the bacterial microbiome, and no statistical association with measurable health effects. Nevertheless, the green June beetle is an interesting model for soil toxicity experiments in the future as is it easy to collect, house, and handle.