THE EFFECT OF LIGHT ON INSECT PEST OF SORGHUM WITH

REFERENCE TO Rhyzopertha dominica

BY

SONOIKI OLUWAPELUMI HANNAH

MATRIC NUMBER: 20132259

A RESESARCH PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE

DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, COLLEGE OF
BIOSCIENCES, FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE,
ABEOKUTA

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQIREMENTS FOR THE

AWARD OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (B.Sc) DEGREE IN BIOLOGICAL
SCIENCES (ZOOLOGY OPTION)
 CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Stored grains may suffer serious attacks from pests (insects, fungi, rodents and birds), especially

when not protected and in the presence of poor store hygiene. Grains are highly susceptible to

infestation by stored product insects and the major loss of food grains in storage is by two

internal feeders such as rice weevil, Sitophilus oryzae and lesser grain borer, Rhyzopertha

dominica (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) (Jood et al., 1996). Internal feeders feed on whole, sound

grain and larvae develop inside grain kernels. This groups of insects constitutes the most serious

economic pests because their cryptic feeding habits makes infestations difficult to detect until

progeny emerge.

Rhyzopertha dominica is a cosmopolitan insect pest of stored raw grains. This species is well

adapted to dry conditions (Emekei et al., 2004) and is generally regareded as astrong flier, which

can easily disperse from one storage facility to another and create new infestations (Stejskal et al,

2003; Khan and Marwat, 2004). Lesser grain borer, Rhyzopertha dominica is a field-to-store pest

and this may cause economic damage in the store (Adedire, 2001).

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is one of the major cereal crops widely grown in Nigeria, and a very

important staple food for the populace particularly in the northern part of the country

(Tashikalma et al., 2010). Sorghum is native to the tropical areas of Africa and it is one of the

worlds most important human food and animal feed crops in the developing world. It is an

annual crop with considerable variability in growth characteristics and has high biomass yield

and excellent nitrogen use efficiency (Gardener et al., 1994; Anderson et al., 1995; Bean et al.,

2008; Putnam et al., 1991).

Cereal grains are the main sources of human diets. Grain losses in cereals during storage can

reach 50 per cent of the total harvest where major part of quantitative and qualitative loss of

grain is caused by insects (Fornal et al., 2007). Among the pests of stored grain, lesser grain

borer, Rhyzopertha dominica (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) infests the cereal crops viz sorghum and

maize (Menon et al., 2002) and was considered as the major pest. This insect pest is considered

as both external and internal feeder. Both larvae and adults of this insect feed on whole, sound

grains and cause extensive damage (Rees, 2007).

Rhyzopertha dominica is a major pest of wheat (Flinn et al., 2004) and rice (Chanbang et al.,

2008) around the world. Both larvae and adult produce frass and cause weight losses by feeding

on grains. R. dominica infestation can reduce rice to dust (Emery and Nayak, 2007). It is capable

of causing damage to grains, causing weight losses of up to 40%. R. dominica feeding on seed

germ reduces germination rate and vigour of the grains and may be followed by secondary pests

and fungi (Bashir, 2002).

1.1 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objectives of this research are to:

Identify the different insect pests infesting sorghum

Evaluate the effect of light on the insect pests

Evaluate the damages caused by the pests

 CHAPTER TWO

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 SORGHUM (Sorghum bicolor)

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is an important tropical cereal food, feed and fodder crop.

Botanically, sorghum belongs to the Genus Sorghum and Family Gramineae. There are several

types of sorghum including grain sorghum, grass sorghum (for pasture and hay), sweet sorghum

(for syrup) and broom corn. Grain sorghum is mainly used as a principal food in tropical areas

and often used as raw material for alcoholic beverages, sweets and glucose. Broom sorghum is

for making brooms while sweet and grass sorghum is used to make sweetener syrup and green

feed. Sorghum is known by a variety of names such as great millet and guinea corn in West

Africa, jowar in India and kaoliang in china.

Sorghum is the fifth most important cereal crop in the world after rice, wheat, corn and barley. It

is the main cereal food for over 750 million people living in semi-arid tropical regions of Africa,

Asia and Latin America (CCCF, 2011). It is produced in areas that are too hot, a minimum

average temperature of 25C is necessary to ensure maximum grain production. The

morphological characteristics of the culture make it one of the currently cultivated cereals that

have the best drought tolerance. During the drought, it rolls its leaves to reduce water loss due to

perspiration. If the drought continues, it becomes dormant instead of dying. The leaves are

protected by a waxy cuticle to reduce evapo transpiration. Breeding research on grain quality has

been on the evaluation of the physical and functional properties of the grains with very little

effort on improving their nutritional values though the crop is mainly used as food (Atokple,

2010).
It has also been seen that sorghum is an important crop in east Africa where in overall there is

good rainfall. This is related to the fact that the rain in sub-tropical Africa is intermittent and

characterized by brief periods of very high rainfall. In fact sorghum is not only drought-resistant,

it can also withstand periods of water logging (Taylor, 2010). There are many varieties of

sorghum ranging in color from white through red to brown.

2.1.1 SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION OF SORGHUM

Kingdom: Plantae

Order: Poales

Family: Poaceae

Genus: Sorghum

Species: bicolor

2.2 INSECT PESTS OF SORGHUM

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is an important cereal crop worldwide that is widely cultivated for

food, fiber, forage, ethanol and sugar production (Li and Gu, 2004; Liu et al., 2009). Sorghum

sweetness attracts not only people but also pathogens and insects. At least 150 insect species

have been reported as pests of sorghum worldwide (Harris, 1995) and more than 100 of them

occurred in Africa (Kruger et al., 2008). Lesser grain borers, flat grain borer and rice weevil are

the most serious pests of sorghum because they feed directly on undamaged grain. Most of the

other stored product beetles feed on broken kernels, grain dust, or grain molds.
Stored grain insect pests are found mainly within two insect orders, Coleoptera and Lepidoptera.

Species in the order coleoptera are commonly referred to as beetles or weevils and are

recognized by their forewings, which are modified into hard elytra, covering the dorsal surface in

a straight mid-dorsal line. The Lepidoptera commonly referred to as butterflies or molts are

recognized by their scaly membranous forewings. Adult lepidoptera do not feed in the grain

storage; the damage is created by the immature (often called caterpillars) larvae, which are

equipped with mandibulate mouthparts.

2.2.1 LESSER GRAIN BORER (Rhyzopertha dominica)

Rhyzopertha dominica is a member of the family Bostrichidae known as auger beetles or

powderpost beetles. Bostrichids are reddish-brown to dark-brown in color. They vary in sizes,

are elongated, cylindrical in cross-section, and their head is invisible when viewed from above.

At high levels of infestation, it devours the entire kernel and reduces the grain to thin skins.

Grain loss in cereals due to pests varies from 10 to 30% (Ferry et al., 2004).

Rhyzopertha dominica is often difficult to kill with insecticides applied directly to grains because

the majority of the lifecycle is spent inside the kernel (Arthur, 1992; Lorini and Galley, 1996;

Huang and Subramanyam, 2005).Females of R. dominica lay between 200 and 500 eggs in their

lifetime. The females lay eggs on the surface of grain kernels, and upon hatching, the larva enters

the kernel (Neethirajan et al., 2007, Ozkaya et al., 2009) and remains inside until maturity.
2.2.2 SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION OF LESSER GRAIN BORER

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Subphylum: Uniramia

Class: Insecta

Order: Coleoptera

Family: Bostrichidae

Genus: Rhyzopertha

Species: dominica

2.2.3 LIFECYCLE OF LESSER GRAIN BORER

Rhyzopertha dominica is a holometabolous insect- it undergoes complete metamorphosis. The

lifecycle includes four stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Rhyzopertha dominica eggs are

deposited in clusters on grain or singly among the frass produced by the insect. The egg is

opaque, whitish in color with a waxy appearance when freshly laid, but after a little while takes

on a pinkish color (Kucerova and Stejskal, 2008). The egg, which is oval-shaped, is about 0.5-

0.6mm in length and 0.2-0.25mm in diameter (Thompson, 1966, LeCato and Flaherty, 1974;

Kucerova and Stejskal, 2008).

There are on average four instars in Rhyzopertha dominica (Potter, 1935; Howe, 1950;

Thompson, 1966). The larva is very active and moves rapidly around the grains. The pupae are
inactive and their body movement is limited to the abdominal segments. Young pupae are

whitish in color, but later, brown pigment is laid down in the eye and mouthparts (Winterbottom,

1922). It is possible to distinguish between the sexes during the pupa stage as sexual dimorphism

is displayed at the tip of the abdomen.

The adult beetle is 2-3mm long and 0.8-1mm in width. Fresh body weight ranges from 0.99 to

1.38mg, whereas mean fresh body weight is about 1.20mg (Edde and Philips, 2006). The insect

is reddish-brown to dark brown in color.

2.3 INSECT REACTIONS TO LIGHT

Most insects have two types of photoreceptive organs, compound eyes and ocelli. Compound

eyes are made up of a large number of light-sensitive units termed ommatidia. An ommatidium

contains an elongated bundle of photoreceptor cells, each having specific spectral sensitivities.

Light affects insect behavior and development in a variety of ways that can be divided into

several categories. Insect exhibit the phototactic behaviours:

Attraction (positive phototaxis, moving toward a light source); this response can be used

to trap pests but the effective wavelengths and intensities vary among species (Coombe,

1981; Hardie, 1989; Kinoshita and Arikawa, 2000; Menzek and Greggers, 1985; Yang et

al., 2003).

Repulsion (negative phototaxis, moving away from light); this can be used to prevent

pests from entering a cultivation area by presenting light at wavelengths and intensities

that repel them (Jander, 1963; Kim et al., 2013; Reisenman et al., 1998).
 CHAPTER THREE

3.0 MATERIALS AND METHODS

MATERIALS

The materials to be used for the research include;

Sorghum grains

Fluorescent bulb

Petri dishes

Wire

Black cellotape

Polythene bag

METHODS

The method or process to be followed in carrying out the research is as follows:

Sorghum grains would be purchased from osiele market. Sorghum weevils would be cultured

and kept in a polythene bag. The grains would be checked for the presence of inscet pest and the

number of insect pest would be counted and recorded. Petri dishes of size 8.8cm1.3cm would

be bought. The fluorescent bulb would be suspended about 30cm above the chamber. Five to ten

insects would be distributed into the chamber and after 10 minutes the number of insects visible

in the illuminated half would be recorded for every 10minutes for 90 minutes. The results would

be tabulated and the mean and percentage distribution of insects in the dark and lighted zones of

the chamber would be calculated.