Storage insects in sesame play a major role in the deterioration of harvested seeds causing both quantitative and qualitative losses. Red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum is one of the major pests of sesame seed under storage conditions. Biology of the red flour beetle on three different coloured sesame varieties viz., white (cv. Swetha), black (cv. GT-10) and brown (cv. YLM-17) was studied in the laboratory. Among the varieties evaluated GT-10 was least preferred one recorded with longest incubation period (6.48 days), longest larval duration (37.22 days), and longest adult longevity (33.20 days). Whereas Swetha is highly preferred genotype recorded with shortest incubation period (4.70 days), shortest larval duration (32.83 days), and shortest adult longevity (22.74 days). The width of head capsule was recorded lowest on GT-10 at each moult 0.15, 0.17, 0.25, 0.31, 0.36 and 0.39 mm respectively. The mean observed and estimated progression factor was obtained to the tune of 1.223 and

Tribolium castaneum, biology, morphometrics, varieties, storage, sesame seed.

In conclusion, studying the biology of insects to better understanding of how insects grow and develop has contributed greatly to their management. Among the three tested varieties, the egg, grub, pupa and adult period of Tribolium castaneum on white seeded variety of Swetha was observed to be the shortest, whereas the longer duration was on GT-10, which is black seeded. This suggests that the GT-10 has become unsuitable for insect development and has evolved into a Tribolium castaneum resistant variety.

Sundar, B., Rashmi, V., Duraimurugan, P., Matcha, N. and Ramesh, K. (2021). Biology of Red Flour Beetle Tribolium castaneum (Hbst.) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) on Stored Sesame. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 13(2): 516-521.