The 2005 ESA Annual Meeting and Exhibition
December 15-18, 2005
Ft. Lauderdale, FL

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Friday, December 16, 2005
D0058

Host suitability of pecans for six species of storage pests

Andrine A. Morrison, andrine@okstate.edu1, Philip G. Mulder, philmul@okstate.edu1, Bill Ree, w-ree@tamu.edu2, and Thomas W. Phillips, tomp@okstate.edu1. (1) Oklahoma State University, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, 127 NRC, Stillwater, OK, (2) Texas A&M University, Texas Agricultural Extension Service, P.O. Box 2150, Bryan, TX

While much is known about field pests of pecan [Carya illinoinensis (Wang.) Koch.], little is known about post-harvest pecan pests. This experiment examines the suitability of pecans for progeny survival of six species of storage pests: Indianmeal moth, Plodia interpunctella (Hübner), sawtoothed grain beetle, Oryzaephilus surinamensis L., red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst), lesser grain borer, Rhyzopertha dominica (Fabricius), rusty grain beetle, Cryptolestes ferrugineus (Stephens), and maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamaise Motschulsky. Using “Cherokee” pecans, survivability of the above listed species of storage pests was tested in 0.5 L glass containers filled with either 100 g whole in-shell pecans, 100 g cracked pecans, 53 g pecan nutmeats, or 53 g cracked wheat. Fifty adults of each beetle species and 10 pairs of Indianmeal moths were released separately into the glass jars and placed in a growth chamber maintained at 28°C, 60-70% RH, and 16:8 photoperiod for six weeks. Four replications were performed. At the conclusion of the experiment, counts of immature and adult insects were made and analyzed. Sawtoothed grain beetle, red flour beetle, lesser grain borer, and Indianmeal moth were found to be able to reproduce successfully on cracked and nutmeat pecans. Lesser grain borer and sawtoothed grain beetle were able to produce larvae on whole pecans.


Species 1: Coleoptera Bostrichidae Rhyzopertha dominica (lesser grain borer)
Species 2: Coleoptera Silvanidae Oryzaephilus surinamensis (sawtoothed grain beetle)
Species 3: Coleoptera Tenebrionidae Tribolium castaneum (red flour beetle)
Keywords: Postharvest, Nut