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International Journal of Zoology and Applied Biosciences Review Article
Red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst): Biology and Managemen
Mukesh Kumar Chaubey
Year : 2023 | Volume: 8 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 11-21
Received on: 2023-02-22
Revised on: 2023-2-28
Accepted on: 2023-03-03
Published on: 03/23/2023
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Mukesh Kumar Chaubey( 2023).
Red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst): Biology and Managemen
. International Journal of Zoology and Applied Biosciences, 8( 2), 11-21.
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Abstract
According to an estimate, the world’s population will reach upto 9.1 billion till 2050 and food production is projected to increase up to 70%. Developing countries already facing food scarcity contribute most in population growth. In these countries, one in every six children suffers from hunger and malnutrition. In these critical situation, protection of the grains and food products from insect infestation during pre-harvest and post-harvest is urgently necessary it causes mass losses of grains. In several countries, about 15% of grains are lost harvesting or post-harvesting stages. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has estimated this loss up to 40% in India. Among the culprits of these losses, coleopteran insect species play major roles. Among coleopterans, red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum causes loss of grains and food products to larger extent in post-harvest stage. T. castaneum is a secondary pest with a wide host range infesting almong, barley, beans, ground nuts, lentils, maize, oat, peas, rice, rye, sorghum, wheat and other processed grain products. Adults and larvae attack grains already damaged by primary pest and feed mainly on the germ. For the management of T. castaneum population, several approaches including synthetic insecticides have been applied with lots of success but leaving several environmental and human health issues too. To minimize these adverse effects, plant derived volatile chemicals i.e. essential oils and its constituents alone or in combination have been used and got promising results. Since these are volatile, non-persistent and biodegradable, essential oil based formulations can be used for the management of T. castaneum at large as green eco-friendly insecticide
Keywords
Biopesticides, Essential oil, Insecticide resistance, Tribolium castaneum.
