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The Biology of Nausibius clavicornis (KUG.) (Col., Cucujidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

M. H. Breese  and
Thelma E. Wise
M. H. Breese
Affiliation:
The Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad, The West Indies.
Thelma E. Wise
Affiliation:
The Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad, The West Indies.
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Extract

Nausibius clavicornis (Kug.) is a cosmopolitan Cucujid that has frequently been recorded from sugar. It is commonly found in this commodity in Trinidad, where it has not been collected from any other.

The adult and other stages are described, and an account is given of the life-history on Haydak's formula at 85°F. and 75 per cent. R.H. Development has also been studied on two types of unrefined sugar.

Copulation can take place within one day of the emergence of either sex and the female may begin laying within four days of copulation. The average number of eggs laid was 275 and the overall viability was 85 per cent. The average incubation period was just under five days.

The larvae of both sexes may undergo only five moults in development, but the more usual number for females is six. When larvae are disturbed during development, both sexes tend to have six larval instars. Severe disturbance may induce a seventh moult. The mean development period from oviposition to the emergence of the adult was 30 days when there were five larval instars; when there were six, development took about two days longer. Larval mortality on Haydak's formula was low.

Ovipositing females lived for up to 163 days under controlled conditions, but males tended to outlive females by about 50 days.

On unrefined sugars (e.g., raw or yellow-crystal sugar), adults lived for almost as long (73:99) as on Haydak's formula, but oviposition was greatly reduced and the viability of the eggs was much lower. Larval mortality was high, especially in the first instar, and the total development period was greatly increased.

It is unlikely that N. clavicornis could multiply rapidly in raw or unrefined sugar, and any deterioration in stored sugar directly attributable to it would probably be small in comparison with that caused by other factors.

Type
Research Paper
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , August 1959 , pp. 237 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1959

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