Developmental stages endocrine disruption

Our present meagre understanding of normal endocrine processes in invertebrates makes the assessment of chemical endocrine disruption in the field difficult (LeBlanc 1999). Steroid roles differ between species and sometimes sexes, and their influence may vary at different developmental stages. In most studies of invertebrates, endocrine disruption appears to involve androgenization rather than oestrogenic effects (see Box 7.2). Arthropods (crustaceans and insects), annelids and molluscs use ecdysteroids, terpenoids and vertebratelike sex steroids for endocrine control. For example, the ecdysteroid ecdysone is naturally converted to 20-hydroxyecdysone (Fig. 7.10), which induces moulting (ecdysis) in both insect larvae and crustaceans. 

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