Abstract

Six edible legumes viz., green gram, black gram, chickpea, pigeonpea, pea and cowpea were subjected to infestation by two species of bruchids viz., Callosobruchus maculatus and C. chinensis to study the extent of damage under single-species and mixed population conditions. Green gram was found to be the most suitable host in terms of suitability index for C. maculatus and C. chinensis under single-species (0.0545 and 0.0627, repsectively) and mixed population conditions (0.0556 and 0.0510, respectively). On the contrary, red gram was the least preferred host for C. maculatus and C. chinensis both under single-species (0.0439 and 0.0445, respectively) and mixed population (0.0397 and 0.0389, respectively) conditions. The competition between these two species implied that though both the species coexist together during storage, C. maculatus was dominant over C. chinensis.

Keywords: Callosobruchus spp.- damage potential- edible legumes - interspecific competition.