Dataset: “High-throughput chemical toxicity testing for beneficial insects: The value of coated vials”

This repository contains all the data and scripts required to replicate the analyses presented in Thia et al. (2025) “High-throughput chemical toxicity testing for beneficial insects: The value of coated vials”, published in Journal of Economic Entomology (https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toaf155).This study contains chemical toxicity data for larval and adult life stages of the ladybeetle, Hippodamia variegata, and the adult life stage of the parasitoid wasp, Diaeretiella rapae. There are 3 experiments comprising this dataset. Experiment 1 involved the use of coated vial to identify dose-response ranges for these natural enemies to three pesticides (alpha-cypermethrin, dimethoate, and sulfoxaflor). Experiment 2 then utilised these dose-response ranges to compare mortality in coated vial versus Potter tower spray dish assays at predicted LC20-, LC50-, and LC80-values for each pesticide. Experiment 3 was a validation experiment testing the interaction between pesticide application and vessel: coated vials, coated dishes, and Potter tower sprayed dishes.All data analyses are run in R. You can use the R project file, NE_toxicity_testing.Rproj to manage the analyses. Simply open this R project file in the main directory and make sure the Data/, Functions/ and Results/ directory are all in the same place. There is a separate script for each natural enemy: 1_Ladybird_larvae_analysis.R, 2_Ladybird_adults_analysis.R, and 3_Parasitoid_analysis.R. A final script, 4_Combined_plots.R, is used to create composite plots for all natural enemies.