Wheat, Yam, Cassava and Corn flour obtained during fortnightly interval for three months in Benin City, Edo State, were investigated for the occurrence and relative abundance of various insect pests. Six species of insect pests were recorded. They includes, Tribolium castaneum, sitophilus oryzae, Dinoderus porcellus, Oryzaephilus surinamensis, Araecerus fasciaculatus and tenebrioides mauritanicus. The infestation survey shows Trilobolium castaneun as a major pest of wheat flour. Other insect pests found are Tenebrioides mauritanicus and Dinoderus porcellus as indicated by their mean number and Percentage abundance of individual species in this study but Sitophilus oryzae does not thrive in wheat flour. Araecerus fasciaculatus is the major pest of yam and cassava flours while infestation of Tribolium castanuen in Corn flour was the highest. Oryzaephilus surinamensis and Sitophilus oryzae occur sporadically in flours. © JASE

Edoreh, JA

Ogebegbe, ABO

English

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 *Corresponding author: ogbeisk@yahoo.com  JASEM ISSN 1119-8362 All rights reserved   J   A  S   E  M .OURNAL OF PPLIED CIENCE AND NVIRONMENTAL ANAGEMENT J. Appl. Sci. Environ. Manage. September 2014 Vol. 18 (3) 487-494 Full-text Available Online at  www.ajol.info and www.bioline.org.br/ja An Evaluation of Infestation of Insect Pests of Flours in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria  1*OGEDEGBE ABO; 2EDOREH JA  1Department of Science Laboratory Technology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Benin, PMB 1154 Benin City, Nigeria 2 Department of Animal and Environmental Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Benin, PMB 1154 Benin City, Nigeria *Corresponding author: ogbeisk@yahoo.com  KEYWORDS: Food quality; Specie abundances; Pest; Disease; Infestation  ABSTRACT: Wheat, Yam, Cassava and Corn flour obtained during fortnightly interval for three months in Benin City, Edo State, were investigated for the occurrence and relative abundance of various insect pests. Six species of insect pests were recorded. They includes, Tribolium castaneum, sitophilus oryzae, Dinoderus porcellus, Oryzaephilus surinamensis, Araecerus fasciaculatus and tenebrioides mauritanicus. The infestation survey shows Trilobolium castaneun as a major pest of wheat flour. Other insect pests found are Tenebrioides mauritanicus and Dinoderus porcellus as indicated by their mean number and Percentage abundance of individual species in this study but Sitophilus oryzae does not thrive in wheat flour. Araecerus fasciaculatus is the major pest of yam and cassava flours while infestation of Tribolium castanuen in Corn flour was the highest. Oryzaephilus surinamensis and Sitophilus oryzae occur sporadically in flours. © JASEM  http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jasem.v18i3.16    Insects are pests when they reduce the quantity and quality of food, forage, feed on fibre during production, damage commodity during harvesting, processing, marketing, storage or use and they also transmit disease organisms to man or valuable plants and animals (Gullan and Cranston, 2005; Charles and Norman, 2005).  Insects infesting stored foods are one of the most common household insect problems. The many different kinds of insects that invade stored dried foods are often referred to as "pantry pests. Stored food product may become infested at the processing plant or warehouse, in transit, at the store, or right in your home. Most of the stored food insects also are pests of stored grain or other commodities and may be relatively abundant outdoors. Food products that are left undisturbed on the shelves for long periods are particularly susceptible to infestation. However, foods of any age can become infested (Davidson and William, 1979; Morallo-Rejesus, 1978).  Insect pests of flours are insects which affect flours specifically and they include the flour beetle “Tribolium confusum” (confused flour beetle) and “Tribolium castaneum” (Red flour beetle), often referred to as brain bugs because they are common in milling operations. The Mediterranean Flour Moth(Ephestia kuehniella), Indian meal Moth (Plodia interpunctella), Sitophilus oryzae, Oryzaephilus surinamensis, Araecerus fasciaculatus and Tenebroides mauritanicus. Many of these insects develop and reproduce within the stored flours and derive all the nutrients they require from the stored food. The aim of this study is to investigate the different insect pests of flour in Benin City and to determine their percentage abundance in the various flour samples.  MATERIALS AND METHODS The Studied Area is Benin City. Benin City is the Capital of Edo State. It has a temperature range of 21.1oC - 32.2oC. It is a tropical rainforest zone with two main seasons (From May – October is raining season and November - April is dry season) occurring during the year. About 500 g of infested samples of yam, corn, wheat and cassava flours were collected from stores at Obowa Street, off Akpakpava Road, Bucha Street, off Forestry Road, Uselu market and New Benin Market all in Benin City, Edo State. Sampling was carried out at forth-nightly intervals (every two weeks) from August to October, 2010. This was done between 10am - 12am on sampling days.  About 500 g of infested samples of yam, corn, wheat and cassava flours collected from stores and markets in Benin City were isolated using sieves. While sieving, the flour granules passed through the sieve but the insect pest remained on the sieve and were subsequently collected by hand picking. The insect pests were killed in a Killing jar of about 250ml. The bottle (Killing jar) has a layer of cotton wool to which chloroform is poured for about 20 min; the insect pests left in the bottle and subsequently removed. The preservation was done by placing specimens in specimen bottles which contained 70% alcohol with some glycerol to prevent stiffening of the specimens. The insect pest collected from the 500g of each infested samples of flours were counted and recorded.   An Evaluation of Infestation of Insect Pests   488  1*OGEDEGBE ABO; 2EDOREH JA  The identification of the different insect pests was done by marching samples collected with referenced works from the internet, the museum of Crop science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin and while heating and weighing methods were used to determine the moisture content of the flours in Agric laboratory. About 1g of each infested flour was put in a crucible and was first weighed on a beam balance before subjecting to heating in an oven set at temperature of 105oC till a constant weight was obtained after series of heating and weighing each infested flour. The moisture content determination is very important because each insect pest is only capable of affecting flour with certain moisture content range.  RESULT AND DISCUSSION The infestation survey shows that the insect pests associated with flour in Benin City are Trilobium castanuen, Araecerus fasciaculatus, Dinoderus porcellus, Tenebrioides mauritanicus, Sitophilus Oryzae and Oryzaephilus surinamensis. The survey shows Trilobium castaneun as the major pest of wheat flour (Table 1) having a mean number of 11.33 insect pests per 500 g of infested flour and 60% percentage abundance for station I (Figure 1). Araecerus fasciaculatus is the second major insect pest of wheat flour (Table 1) having a mean number of 3.5 insect pest per 500 g and 18% percentage (%) abundance of individuals for station I (Figure 1). Other insect pests found on wheat flour are Tenebroides mauritanicus and Dinoderus porcellus  but Sitophilus oryzae does not thrive in wheat flour. The mean number of 13.33 insect pests per 500 g and 68% percentage abundance for station III (Table 3 and Figure 3).   Araecerus fasciaculatus is a major pest of yam (Table 5) having a mean number of 17.83 insect pests per 500g of infested flour and 69% percentage abundance for station I (Figure 5) and mean number of 13.17 insect pests per 500 g (Table 7) and 60% percentage abundance for station III (Figure 7).  Araecerus fasciaculatus is also the major pest of cassava flours (Table 9) having a mean number of 19.33 insect pests per 500 g of infested flour and 72%  percentage abundance (Figure 9) for station I and mean number of 15.83 insect pests per 500 g (Table 11) and 72% percentage abundance (Figure 11) for station III. Other insect pests associated with yam and cassava flours are Dinoderus porcellus, Trilobium castanuen and Tenebriodes mauritanicus.   Infestation survey of corn flour shows Trilobium castanuen as the major pest (Table 14) having a mean number of 35 insect pests per 500g of infested flour and 91% percentage abundance (Figure 14) for Station II and mean number of 27.17 insect pests per 500 g (Table 16) and 92% percentage abundance (Figure 16) for station IV. The infestation in corn flour recorded the highest number of pests (Table 14 and Figure 14). However, some insect pest such as Araecerus fasciaculatus, Dinoderus porcellus and Sitophilus oryzae do not thrive on this flour (Table 14 and Table 16).  Table 1: Infestation survey of wheat flour in station I Replicate  No Araecerus  sp Dinoderus  sp Oryzaephilus  sp Sitophilus sp Tenebroides sp Trilobium sp 1 3 2 0 0 1                     8 2 5 2 0 0 0 12 3 12 8 0 0 5 22 4 0 0 1   0 0 0 5 2 0 0 0 3 12 6 0 2 0 0 3 14 Total 23 12 1 0 12 68             Fig 1: Percentage (%) abundance of individuals  species of wheat flour in station I   Fig 2: Percentage (%) abundance of individuals  species of wheat flour in station II  An Evaluation of Infestation of Insect Pests   489  1*OGEDEGBE ABO; 2EDOREH JA  Table 2: Infestation survey of wheat flour in station II Replicate  No Araecerus  sp Dinoderus  sp Oryzaephilus  sp Sitophilus  sp Tenebroides  sp Trilobium  sp 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 2 0 1 0 0 0 3 3 4 0 0 0 0 8 4 5 5 0 0 3 14 5 9 0 0 0 1 17 6 15 6 0 0 4 19 Total 33 12 0 0 8 65  Table 3: Infestation survey of wheat flour in station III Replicate  No Araecerus  sp Dinoderus  sp Oryzaephilus  sp Sitophilus  sp Tenebroides  sp Trilobium sp 1 8 3 0 0 2 17 2 3 0 2 0 3 8 3 0 0 2 0 0 12 4 0 0 0 0 0 22 5 2 7 0 0 1 13 6 3 2 0 0 0 8 Total 16 12 4 0 6 80             Fig 3: Percentage (%) abundance of individual’s  species of wheat flour in station III    Table 4: Infestation survey of wheat four in station IV Replicate  No Araecerus  sp Dinoderus  sp Oryzaephilus  sp Sitophilus  sp Tenebroides  sp Trilobium  sp 1 7 2 0 0 2 14 2 0 0 1 0 2 4 3 0 0 3 0 0 7 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 5 0 0 0 19 6 3 1 0 0 0 6 Total 12 8 4 0 4 50  Table 5: Infestation survey of yam flour in station I Replicate  No Araecerus  sp Dinoderus  sp Oryzaephilus  sp Sitophilus  sp Tenebroides  sp Trilobium  sp 1 7 0 0 0 2 1 2 18 3 0 0 0 1 3 13 5 0 0 0 1 4 20 8 0 0 1 3 5 21 11 0 0 0 0 6 28 4 0 0 3 4 Total 107 31 0 0 6 10  Fig 4: Percentage (%) abundance of individual’s  species of wheat flour in station IV  An Evaluation of Infestation of Insect Pests   490  1*OGEDEGBE ABO; 2EDOREH JA   Fig 5: Percentage (%) abundance of individual’s  species of yam flour in station I   Table 6: Infestation survey of yam flour in station II Replicate  No Araecerus sp Dinoderus  sp Oryzaephilus  sp Sitophilus  sp Tenebroides  sp Trilobium  sp 1 28 24 0 0 0 2 2 6 0 0 0 1 0 3 9 2 0 0 4 0 4 8 1 0 0 0 4 5 17 3 0 0 2 0 6 22 4 0 0 0 5 Total 90 34 0 0 7 11  Table 7: Infestation survey of yam flour in station III Replicate  No Araecerus s p Dinoderus  sp Oryzaephilus  sp Sitophilus  sp Tenebroides  sp Trilobium  sp 1 18 18 0 0 0 7 2 1 1 0 0 2 0 3 12 0 0 0 0 0 4 15 4 0 0 0 3 5 28 7 0 0 0 7 6 5 1 0 0 0 2 Total 79 31 0 0 2 19              Fig 7: Percentage (%) abundance of individual’s  species of yam flour in station III  Table 8: Infestation survey of yam flour in station IV Replicate  No Araecerus  sp Dinoderus  sp Oryzaephilus  sp Sitophilus  sp Tenebroides  sp Trilobium  sp 1 26 4 0 1 0 3 2 14 8 0 0 0 4 3 28 1 0 0 1 4 4 9 2 0 0 0 1 5 4 0 0 0 4 0 6 9 1 0 0 2 1 Total 90 16 0 1 7 13     Fig 6: Percentage (%) abundance of  individual’s  species of yam flour in station II   Fig 8: Percentage (%) abundance of individual’s  species of yam flour in station IV  An Evaluation of Infestation of Insect Pests   491  1*OGEDEGBE ABO; 2EDOREH JA                  Table 9: Infestation survey of cassava flour in station I Replicate  No Araecerus  sp Dinoderus  sp Oryzaephilus  sp Sitophilus  sp Tenebroides  sp Trilobium  sp 1 32 10 0 0 3 8 2 6 0 0 0 0 0 3 10 3 0 0 0 1 4 14 3 0 0 0 2 5 22 0 0 0 0 2 6 32 7 0 0 1 6 Total 116 23 0 0 4 19  Table 10: Infestation survey of cassava flour in station II Replicate  No Araecerus  sp Dinoderus  sp Oryzaephilus  sp Sitophilus  sp Tenebroides  sp Trilobium  sp 1 10 0 0 0 1 3 2 14 1 0 0 1 5 3 14 4 0 0 3 0 4 23 6 0 0 0 2 5 36 9 0 0 0 2 6 42 14 0 0 0 2 Total 139 34 0 0 5 14  Table 11: Infestation survey of cassava flour in station III Replicate  No Araecerus  sp Dinoderus  sp Oryzaephilus sp Sitophilus  sp Tenebroides  sp Trilobium  sp 1 12 2 0 0 0 4 2 40 9 0 0 0 1 3 15 2 0 0 2 0 4 14 1 0 0 0 3 5 7 3 0 0 2 5 6 7 0 0 0 0 3 Total 95 17 0 0 4 16   Fig 11: Percentage (%) abundance of individual’s  species of cassava flour in station III     Fig 9: Percentage (%) abundance of individuals  species of cassava flour in station I  Fig 10: Percentage (%) abundance of individuals  species of cassava flour in station II  Fig 12: Percentage (%) abundance of individuals  species of cassava flour in station IV  An Evaluation of Infestation of Insect Pests   492  1*OGEDEGBE ABO; 2EDOREH JA  Table 12: Infestation survey of cassava flour in station IV Replicate  No Araecerus  sp Dinoderus  sp Oryzaephilus  sp Sitophilus  sp Tenebroides  sp Trilobium  sp 1 13 2 0 0 0 0 2 12 2 0 0 0 1 3 26 7 0 0 0 5 4 18 1 0 0 0 4 5 13 0 0 0 0 1 6 7 4 0 0 0 1 Total 89 16 0 0 0 12  Table 13: Infestation survey of corn flour in station I Replicate  No Araecerus  sp Dinoderus  sp Oryzaephilus  sp Sitophilus  sp Tenebroides  sp Trilobium  sp 1 0 0 2 0 5 75 2 0 0 3 0 2 42 3 0 0 1 0 3 75 4 0 0 3 0 0 36 5 0 0 5 0 0 18 6 0 0 2 0 0 15 Total 0 0 16 0 10 264   Fig 13: Percentage (%) abundance of  individual’s  species of corn flour in station I  Table 14: Infestation survey of corn flour in station II Replicate  No Araecerus  sp Dinoderus  sp Oryzaephilus  sp Sitophilus  sp Tenebroides  sp Trilobium  sp 1 0 0 3 0 3 12 2 0 0 2 0 0 22 3 0 0 3 0 7 40 4 0 0 3 0 2 42 5 0 0 0 0 0 56 6 0 0 0 0 0 38 Total 0 0 10 0 12 210                     Fig 15: Percentage (%) abundance of individual’s  species of corn flour in station III  Fig 14: Percentage (%) abundance of individual’s  species of corn flour in station II  Fig 16: Percentage (%) abundance of individual’s  species of corn flour in station IV  An Evaluation of Infestation of Insect Pests   493  1*OGEDEGBE ABO; 2EDOREH JA  Table 15: Infestation survey of corn flour in station III Replicate  No Araecerus  sp Dinoderus  sp Oryzaephilus  sp Sitophilus  sp Tenebroides  sp Trilobium  sp 1 0 0 0 0 1 31 2 0 0 1 0 0 18 3 0 0 2 0 2 23 4 0 0 2 0 0 24 5 0 0 7 0 1 46 6 0 0 0 0 0 26 Total 0 0 12 0 4 168  Table 16: Infestation survey of corn flour in station IV Replicate  No Araecerus  sp Dinoderus  sp Oryzaephilus  sp Sitophilus  sp Tenebroides  sp Trilobium  sp 1 0 0 2 0 4 47 2 0 0 1 0 0 15 3 0 0 2 0 0 27 4 0 0 2 0 1 42 5 0 0 3 0 1 22 6 0 0 0 0 0 10 Total 0 0 10 0 6 163  The infestation survey shows that the insect pests associated with flour (wheat, corn, cassava and yam) in Benin City are Trilobium castanuen, Araecerus fasciaculatus, Dinoderus porcellus, Tenebriodes mauritanicus, Sitophilus oryzae and Oryzaephilus surinamensis. It was found that more than one insect pest affects a particular flour. Hence, insect pests of flour are said to exhibit low host specificity and the level of infestation is higher in some in relation to the others (Osuji, 1980; Davey, 1965; Rossiter, 1970).  Trilobium castaneum is a major insect pest of wheat flour (Lyon and William, 2008). In the wheat flour, Araecerus fasciaculatus is a second major pest while Dinoderus porcellus and Tenebrioides mauritanicus occurred. The main factors which contribute to infestation are attributed to residual populations from old stock, unclean storage containers, unhygienic condition of the warehouse and flour with high moisture content. Many of the storage pests feed on other dried products as well as flours. This can often lead to cross infestation of stored products and attention must be paid to hygiene of all stored products (Krischik and Vera, 1995).  Araecerus fasciaculatus is the major insect pest of cassava and yam flour (Buss and Fasulo, 2006). Dinoderus porcellus and Trilobium castaneum are the second and third major insect pests of yam and cassava flours respectively. Oryzaephilis surinamensis also occurred sporadically. The moisture content of flours serves as a determinant in relation to the ability of the insect pests to survive and proliferate progressively. Hence, with the moisture content of approximately 16% and 19% for yam and cassava flour respectively enhances proliferation of insect pest insect. The availability of nutrients in the different flours assisted the overwhelming presence of most of the insects’ pests. It is also a pointer to the fact that insect pests cannot live in a medium devoid of nutrients. Unhygienic condition of the warehouse also contributes to infestation (Osuji, 1980).  The infestation of Trilobium castaneum in corn flour has the highest level of insect pest infestation not just for number of insects present in the corn flour but among the insect pests surveyed so far in the course of this project work. However, this high dominance in corn flours is followed by the infestation of Tenebroides mauritanicus. Oryzaephilus surinamensis. is also found in the corn flour but the level of infestation is low.  Infestation by Sitophilus oryzae was found in most of the flours but all through the survey, it was also found to maintain the least level of infestation. In general, the main factors which contribute to infestation are attributed to residual populations from old stock, unclean storage containers, unhygienic condition of the warehouse with high moisture content, mix-up of bags of flours in stores and markets, lack of knowledge of the insect pests and alternate hosts. Many of the storage pests feed on other dried products as well as flours.   REFERENCES Davey, P. M. (1965). Insect pests of stored products in the tropics and the commodities and conditions in which they occur TSPI (N) 377-386p.  Davidson, R. H. and William, F. L. (1979). Insect Pests of Farm, Garden, and Orchard. Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated. 38p.  Fasulo, T. R. (2002). German Cockroach and Stored Product Pests. Bug Tutorials. University of Florida/IFAS. CD-ROM. SW 165.  Gullan, P. J. and Cranston, P. S. (2005). The Insects: An Outline of Entomology (3 ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.  An Evaluation of Infestation of Insect Pests   494  1*OGEDEGBE ABO; 2EDOREH JA  Lyon, W. F. (2007) "Confused and Red Flour Beetles". Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet. The Ohio State University. Retrieved 2008-03-05.  Morallo-Rejesus, B. (1978). Stored grain pest problems and research needs in Southeast Asia. SEARCA professorial lecture in Entomology, July 21, 1978. 41 pp.  Rossiter, P. D. (1970). Field infestation of the rice weevil in wheat. Journal Agricultural Animal Science. 27: 119-121                                                Ryan, M. F., Park, T. and Mertz, D. B. (1970). Flour beetles: responses to extracts of their own pupae. Science. 170: 178-180  Smith, E. H. and Whitman, R. C. (1992). Field Guide to Structural Pests. National Pest Management Association, Dunn Loring, VA. 220pp. 

An Evaluation of Infestation of Insect Pests of Flours in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

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An Evaluation of Infestation of Insect Pests of Flours in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

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