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Crop Protection :: Storage insects and their management
Pulse beetle: Callosobruchus chinensis, C. maculatus

Host range: All whole pulses, beans and grams. 
Symptoms of damage

  • Grubs eat up the grain kernel and make a cavity.
  • Adults come out making exit holes.
Egg Pupa Adult

Identification of the pest

  • Egg - Laid singly, glued to the surface of the pod (in fields) or on grains (in stores). Fresh eggs are translucent, orange cream in colour, changing to greyish white with age.
  • Grub - Fleshy, curved, creamy white in colour with black mouth parts.
  • Pupa - Pupation takes place in a pupal cell prepared beneath the seed coat.  
Adult
  • Brownish grey beetle with characteristic elevated ivory like spots near the middle of the dorsal side.
  • It is small, short, and active with long conspicuous serrate antenna.
  • Elytra do not cover the abdomen completely, which is called as pygidium.
  • Adults are short lived, it is harmless and do not feed on storage produce at all

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