Desempenho biológico de Lasioderma serricorne Fabricius 1792 (Coleoptera: Anobiidae) em diferentes substratos

Abstract

Lasioderma serricorne (Fabricius 1792) (Coleoptera: Anobiidae) is a pest known to cause great damage to several stored products. The damage is caused by the larvae through feeding, while the adults cause damage by puncturing the packaging of the products. Despite this, little is known about the effects that different substrates have on their biological development. The objective of this work was to evaluate the performance of L. serricorne progeny on different food substrates of economic importance. An amount of 100 grams of the following substrates were weighed: wheat grain, wheat flour, oats, popcorn, corn flour, rice, rice flour and flour mixture (wheat germ, cornmeal and brewer's yeast). Then, these materials were placed individually in 300-mL plastic containers. Next, each replicate was infested with 100 L. serricorne adults, aged four days. The containers were closed with lids that allowed gas exchange and kept under controlled conditions of 30°C temperature, in B.O.D. After 15 days of infestation, the adult insects were removed from the substrates and discarded. After thirty days, the substrates were observed daily until the first emergence of adults was seen. The substrate rice flour showed the best performance in the emergence of adults of L. serricorne, with a higher peak at 50 days after the first emergence, while rice and the mixture of flours had the lowest number of emerged insects. Wheat grain had the highest longevity, followed by popcorn grain. Insects fed on the flour mixture had the lowest longevity among the substrates. We conclude that L. serricorne exhibited potential to develop better in rice and wheat flours, however, the pest did not show good development in grains.