International Journal of Entomology Research

Authors
BS Chandel, Indrani Dubey, Atul Tewari

Abstract
Laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the preliminary screening efficiency of ten plant materials against the pulse beetle, Callosobruchus chinensis L. (Coleoptera : Bruchidae), which infests stored chickpea seeds. All the crude extract of the collected plant matrial were tested by dry-film technique against the early emerged adults of C. chinensis L. under storage conditions. The spraying of the extract was done in glass petridishes (10cm diameter) by potters spray tower, using 1.0 ml. of solution per petridish. The crude extracts were tested in three treatments and each treatment with three replications, along with control (Benzene + emulsified water). Ten early emerged adult beetles were released inside each pair of petridishes and allow to remain there for two hours. After which, they were transferred to the fresh petridishes containing chickpea seeds for feeding under control conditions (25 + 1^oC temp. 75 + 5% relative humidity). Amongst the crude extracts, seeds of A. indica (1.0 ml/100g seed) was found to be more effective causing highest (87.95% ) mortality to th beetles followed by rhizome extract of A. galanga (79.26%) and unripe fruits of A. squamosa (78.35 % ) mortality), respectively. The mean mortality percentage of remaining treatments was arranged in the following descending order on the basis of their respective mortality percentage as A. vasica (66.27) > C. tora (55.21) > C. rotundus (28.77) > A. aspera (21.14) > G. pentaphylla (17.81) > C. domesticus (12.39) > Control (6.14) percent, respectively. However, the beetle mortality was not significantly different among all treated beetle compared to the control. Hence, these crude extractives may be suggested as admixtures in the integrated management of beetle infestation of pulse seeds during storage.