Association of deltamethrin with Acarophenax lacunatus on development of Rhyzopertha dominica

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the development of Rhyzopertha dominica on wheat grain treated with the insecticide deltamethrin and infested with the mite Acarophenax lacunatus. The experimental units were Petri dishes containing 30 g of wheat grain (13% moisture content) sprayed with different doses of deltamethrin (0.00, 0.125, 0.25, 0.375, 0.50, 0.625, 0.75, 0.875 and 1.00 mg a.i. kg^-1) infested with 30 adults of R. dominica. Five days after the infestation, five mites were inoculated on each experimental unit, in seven replicates. All treatments were maintained under controlled conditions (30±1°C, 60±5% r.h. and 24 hours scotophase) for 60 days after the infestation. The instantaneous rate of increase of R. dominica was negative under doses higher than 0.25 mg a.i. kg^-1. The lowest number of immature R. dominica was observed with the interaction between deltamethrin doses smaller than 0.5 mg a.i. kg^-1 and A. lacunatus