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N. CHAITANYA*, S.V.S. GOPALA SWAMY AND R. LAKSHMIPATHY
Post Harvest Technology Centre, Ag. College Campus, Bapatla, Guntur Dt., 522 101, Andhra Pradesh.
The cigarette beetle, Lasioderma serricorne (Fabricius) is an omnivorous insect pest that feeds and breeds successfully on a variety of processed food commodities in storage. Development of the cigarette beetle is influenced greatly by the diet and the ability of the insect to utilize the diet. An experiment was conducted at Post Harvest Technology Centre, Bapatla to identify an effective and cheaper culture medium for rearing of cigarette beetle to ensure regular supply of different stages of test insect for conducting various experiments in the laboratory. Wheat and maize were used as base food material in combination with yeast and/or vitamin supplements. Both maize and wheat in combination with yeast + B- complex, resulted in higher number of adult emergence (1076.3 and 1026.3 respectively) when compared to wheat alone or maize alone as culture media indicating that maize or wheat in combination with yeast and vitamin mix can be used as food source for getting good supply of different stages of cigarette beetle.
Cigarette beetle, culture media, wheat, maize