Population levels of grub and adult of D. Ater at different locations of cocoon Market / Grainage in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Investigations were carried out to study the dermestid beetles associated with silkworm grainages in different locations of Tamil Nadu during 2015-2016. As a part of the study, initial surveys were carried out in various government grainage centres of western and northern zones of Tamil Nadu and the observations indicated that the higher percentage of Dermestes ater incidence ranged from 5 to 10% in Dharmapuri and Hosur districts respectively. Adult population was found higher in both top layers of Pure Mysore (10.8%) and CSR2 (10.5%) cocoons and the grub population was higher in bottom layers of Pure Mysore (75.4%) and on CSR2 cocoons (60.3%) while stored in gunny bags.