Assessment of grain damage and weight loss caused by Sitophilus oryzae (L.) feeding on split pulses

An experiment was carried out at the Entomology Laboratory, Horticultural College and Research Institute for Women, TNAU, Trichy in November-December 2013 to estimate the comparative storage losses in split pulses caused by Sitophilus oryzae L. under room and controlled conditions. A completely randomized design (CRD) was used with seven treatments (T1= sorghum, T2 = red gram, T3= chick pea, T4 = black gram, T5 = green gram, T6= fried gram and T7= lentil) each replicated four times. The assessed parameters were per cent weight loss, number of F₁ progeny and per cent grain damage. Among the split pulses red gram dhal was found to be the most suitable host of pulse feeding population with 58.25 and 43.00 F₁ progeny production, 93.50 and 91.25 per cent grain damage and 28.14 and 37.15 per cent weight loss under room and controlled condition followed by green gram, chick pea, black gram, fried gram and lentil. The assessed parameters were higher in sorghum feeding population on sorghum grains than at pulse feeding population on pulse grains.