The Effects of Transgenic Bt Rice on Arthropod Community Structure During Storage

Effects of transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) riceandnon-Bt riceonthe arthropodcommunity structure during storage were studied. Dried and cleaned grains (200 kg of F1 hybrid transgenic rice) from each rice variety were stored at unlidded ceramic pots (100 cm high, 80 cm diameter), and then stored in a 10-year-old barn. To investigate the species and number of arthropods using a needle-point sampler, each pot had 1 kg of grain sampled from both the upper layer (0–35 cm) and the lower layer (35–70 cm) every 15 days. The results showed 12 species of arthropods including Corrodentia, Acarina, Chelonethida, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Hymenoptera were found. No significant differences were observed in the community structure parameters of the arthropods between transgenic Bt rice and non-Bt rice. In both rice varieties, Liposcelis bostrychophilus exhibited the highest level of abundance of community structure, followed by Rhizopertha dominica and Tyrophagus putrescentiae. Overall, there was no significant difference in the temporal dominance curve profiles of the three dominant arthropods between Bt and non-Bt rice. Our results indicated that transgenic Bt rice generally exerts no remarkable negative effects on the arthropod community during storage.