Specific behavior of Sitophilus zeamais in the stocks of rice and maize in rural farmers at Bouaflé region, Côte d’Ivoire – IJAAR

Johnson Félicia, Ouali-N’Goran San-Whouly Mauricette, Tano Yao, Fouabi Kouahou

Laboratory of Zoology and Animal Biology, Félix Houphouët-Boigny University, Abidjan, BP 582 Abidjan 22, Côte d’Ivoire

Key words: Storage, maize, rice, Sitophilus zeamais, specific behavior.

Abstract

Analysis of the array of pests established S. zeamais (Coleoptera : Curculionidae) to be the principal pest which infects rice and maize storages and paves the way for the others insect pests’ infestation. S. zeamais is followed by Tribolium castaneum (Coleoptera : Tenebionidae) and Rhyzopertha dominica (Coleoptera : Bostrichidae). In pure numerical terms with respect to infestation of rice and maize cereals in Bouaflé, the study revealed that S. zeamais represents an estimated 82.11 ± 12.40 % of the entire insect pests environment surveyed. Specific examination of the behavior of S. zeamais indicated that this insect pest population size varies over time throughout the storage period and is also responsive to the specific rice and maize species targeted. With respect to infestation of rice, the study found that infestation rate upon IDSA 85, IDSA 78 and WITA 9 was much lower than tan in the case of rice varieties NERICA, WAB 56-50 together with Zuna. Overall, infestation rate on maize has been found to be higher than that of rice.