RESEARCH ARTICLE Effect of cypermethrin on worker and soldier termites of subterranean termites Odontotermes brunneus (Hagen) (Termitidae: Isoptera) Venkatesulu Mamatha 1 • Ranganathan Muthusamy 1 • Jimmantiyur Madhappan Murugan 1 • Eliningaya J. Kweka 2,3 Received: 7 February 2018 / Revised: 1 December 2018 / Accepted: 4 December 2018 Ó Zoological Society, Kolkata, India 2019 Abstract The termite Odontotermes brunneus is an economically important species causing damage to cellu- lose containing wooden material and agricultural crops in India. Insecticide application is an effective strategy in termite control. In the present study the effect of cyper- methrin was tested for workers and soldiers termite using filter paper dip method. After 24 h treatment the lethal concentration (LC 50 ) was increased to 9.7 ppm in workers and 1.8 ppm in soldiers respectively. The detoxification enzyme activities of esterase, glutathione S-transferase was increased in worker termites 23 lmol, 9 lmol/min/mg of protein compared to soldiers 15 lmol, 7 lmol/min/mg of protein respectively (p \ 0.05). The activity of mixed- function oxidase was found very less in both samples. Further nPAGE analysis revealed that increased esterase band in workers than soldier and control sample. The data of this study revealed that possible mechanism of esterase and glutathione S-transferase mediated cypermethrin detoxification that leads to reduce the sensitivity in worker termites of O. brunneus. Keywords Terrestrial insect Á Synthetic pyrethriod Á Toxicity Á Detoxification enzymes Á Electrophoresis Introduction The termite or white ant belongs to the order Isopteran can inhabit in different region of the world (Smeathman 1781; Krishna and Weesner 1970; Pearce 1997). Among them, the member of Termitidae Odontotermes represents the most dominant economically important pest of sugarcane crop and also notorious pest of other agricultural crops and trees in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh (Ra- jagopal 2002). It is estimated that up to 90–100% of losses have been recorded in sugarcane due to damages by sub- terranean termites at the stage of germination (Sattar and Salihah 2001). Today many safe and simplified practices of termite management systems have been proposed but sudden out- break of insects belongs to stored product implies on insecticide application like organochlorine, organophos- phate and synthetic pyrethroid (Ahmed and Qasim 2011). Among insecticides pyrethroids have been most widely used because of their safe, cheap, effective and long-lasting nature (Butler 2011). However, the widespread develop- ment of insecticide resistance due to detoxification mech- anism, especially in pyrethroids may leads to resistance developed and also confers cross-resistance to other insecticides has become an immense practical problem challenging the control of agricultural pest (Zaim and Guillet 2002; Fragoso et al. 2007). Characterization of detoxification in insects that leads to development of resistance would help us to design novel strategies for pest control and also minimize the over use of insecticide applications. In most cases metabolic resistance mecha- nisms involves an array of detoxification enzymes like monooxygenase, esterase and glutathione S-transferase (Enayati et al. 2005; Ishaaya 1993). & Ranganathan Muthusamy rmuthusamy.dr@gmail.com 1 PG and Research Centre in Biotechnology, MGR College, Dr.MGR Nagar, Hosur, Tamilnadu 635 130, India 2 Department of Medical Parasitology and Entomology, School of Medicine, Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences, P.O. Box 1464, Mwanza, Tanzania 3 Mosquito Section, Division of Livestock and Human Health Disease Vector Control, Tropical Pesticides Research Institute, P.O. Box 3024, Arusha, Tanzania 123 Proc Zool Soc https://doi.org/10.1007/s12595-018-0284-9 T H E Z O O L O G I C A L S O C I E T Y K O L K A T A