Mehmet Kubilay Er

The infestation rate and abundance of insect pests on stored corn in different climatic zones of Turkey

The occurrence and abundance of insect pests infesting stored-corn in three climatic zones of Turkey (southern (Adana, Mersin and Kahramanmaraş provinces), south-eastern (Şanlıurfa province) and central (Konya province) regions) were studied by taking corn samples from different corn storages in each region every each month from June up to and including November. Seven species, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst), Tribolium confusum Jaquelin du Val., Rhyzopertha dominica (F.), Sitophilus oryzae (L.), Oryzaephilus surinamensis (L.), Cryptolestes ferrugineus (Stephens), and Latheticus oryzae (Waterhouse) belonging to 5 families of Coleoptera were found. The infestation rate of insect species varied with the climatic zones of Turkey. S. oryzae indicated the highest infestation rate (80%) in the central region, followed by T. castaneum (40%) and C. ferrugineus (20%). T. castaneum and C. ferrugineus had the highest infestation rate (28.5%) in the south-eastern region while both T. castaneum and S. oryzae (40%) had the highest infestation rate in the southern region. In southern region, the total number of insects per 1 kg corn grain was 33.8 during sampling dates while it was 2.8 and 11.7 insects per 1 kg corn in central and south-eastern region respectively. These results indicated that the densities of insect species in southern and southeastern region of Turkey were found to be much higher than those in central region where the environment is cooler.