Morphological Characterization of Callosobruchus maculatus and C. chinensis and Seed Damage Assessment in Monogamous and Polygamous Condition in Mung Bean

Abstract

The pulse beetles or bruchids cause serious damage in stored legumes. Two most important bruchids are Callosobruchus maculatus and C. chinensis. Among the various pulses, the preferred host of these beetles is mung bean. Therefore, an estimation of seed damage and to study the morphological characters of both species, experiment was conducted in the Department of Entomology, Banda University of Agriculture and Technology, Banda. The observations related to the body size of C. chinensis was smaller in comparison to the C. maculatus and C. chinensis caused lower seed damage than C. maculatus. The weight loss of mung bean seeds caused by C. maculatus was 45.39 ± 5.90 % in monogamous condition and 56.11 ± 5.27% in polygamous condition and the seed weight loss caused by C. chinensis was 36.44 ± 4.72 % in monogamous condition and 48.02 ± 5.51% in polygamous condition. The maximum seed weight loss caused by the polygamous conditions of C. maculatus and C. chinensis, respectively, followed by monogamous conditions of C. maculatus and C. chinensis, respectively.