Effect of temperature on progeny emergence, weight loss and grain damage caused by Sitophilus oryzae L. feeding on sorghum and split pulses

Abstract

An experiment was\\r\\ncarried out at the Entomology Laboratory, Horticultural College and Research\\r\\nInstitute for Women, Trichy to estimate the comparative storage losses in split\\r\\npulses caused by Sitophilus oryzae L. under room and controlled\\r\\nconditions. A completely randomized design (CRD) was used with seven treatments\\r\\n(T1 = Sorghum, T2 = Red Gram, T3= Chick Pea, T4\\r\\n= Black Gram, T5 = Green Gram, T6 = Fried Gram and T7\\r\\n= Lentil) each replicated four times. The assessed parameters were per cent\\r\\nweight loss, number of F1 progeny and per cent grain damage. Among\\r\\nthe split pulses red gram dhal was found to be the most suitable host of pulse\\r\\nfeeding population with 77.25 and 54.25 F1 progeny production, 97.25\\r\\nand 95.25 per cent grain damage and 34.12 and 52.74 per cent weight loss under\\r\\nroom and controlled condition followed by green gram, chick pea, black gram,\\r\\nfried gram and lentil. The assessed parameters were higher in sorghum feeding\\r\\npopulation on sorghum grains than at pulse feeding population on pulse grains.