Abstract
Experiments on the bio-ecology and management of the angoumois grain moth, Sitotroga cerealella (Olivier) were conducted in the laboratory of the Department of Entomology, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Bangladesh during May, 2009 to December, 2011 using rice variety BR-11. The mean oviposition, incubation, larval, pre-pupal and pupal periods of S. cerealella were 3.67, 5.5, 25.2, 3.0, 5.0 days respectively. The mean adult longevity of male and female angoumois grain moth was 8.0 days and 10.0 days respectively. The total life span of S. cerealella ranged from 32 to 49 days depending on the two abiotic factors like temperature and relative humidity. The morphometric measurements of different stages of S. cerealella were recorded. The abiotic factors also inflicted variable mortality in different life stages of S. cerealella. Higher mortality of egg, larva and pupa and longer life span of S. cerealella was observed with low temperature and relative humidity regime. Despite the fact that it was not possible to assess the roles of all the different factors separately, population development of S. cerealella was found to be affected by diseases. Out of all the management approaches the application of tobacco leaves powder showed superior effect in controlling S. cerealella. Aluminium phosphide, wood ash and neem leaves also provided good control of the pest showing the result close to that of tobacco leaves powder. The pheromone X-lure was found useful only for monitoring S. cerealella but was not effective for the management of S. cerealella in storage. The egg parasitoid Trichogramma evanescens showed a good percentage of parasitism as well as adult emergence from parasitized eggs of S. cerealella. Trend of parasitism by the parasitoid increased with increasing number of host eggs but no significant difference of parasitism occurred when more than 10 pairs of T. evanescens were exposed to 100 host eggs. The parasitism efficiency of T. evanescens was found to be reduced with the increase of storage period of the host eggs showing preference for fresh eggs to older ones. The implications of the results and the possibility of using different control approaches for the integrated management of the rice moth, S. cerealella are discussed in details.