Leguminous Seeds Powder Diet Reduces the Survival and Development of the Khapra beetle Trogoderma granarium Everts (Coleoptera: Dermestidae)

摘要

Chemical storage pest control is interlinked with many challenges such as environmental pollution and toxicity to humans and animals. Alternative tools are thus being increasingly researched and applied to supplement and/or substitute old-fashioned chemical means. Entomotoxic proteins, such as the lectins of leguminous seeds, have been shown to be effective alternative control agents against many serious insect pests. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of the flour of three leguminous seeds, L. (Fabaceae) (the common bean), L. (Fabaceae) (the broad bean) and L. (Fabaceae) (the soya bean), against 4th instar larvae of Everts (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). The flours were tested at different concentrations. They all demonstrated significant effects on larval mortality, as well as they all induced a decrease in the number of larvae reaching the pupal stage. The flours of and were highly insecticidal against larvae, especially at the highest concentrations (86.7% for PV100 and 90% for VF100). Our results enrich previous findings on the entomotoxic effect of leguminous plant lectins and highlight and lectins as potential alternative control agents against .