Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T19:18:35.364Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Responses of Pests to Fumigation. I. Toxicity of Mercury Vapour to the Eggs of Calandra granaria (L.).*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

R. E. Blackith
Affiliation:
Imperial College Field Station, Sunninghill, Berks.
B. S. Gorringe
Affiliation:
Imperial College Field Station, Sunninghill, Berks.

Extract

Wild populations of Calandra granaria were allowed to oviposit on clean wheat and the tolerances of the eggs to mercury vapour were estimated. For six such populations the median lethal doses ranged from 55 mg.hr./m.3 to less than 1.0 mg.hr./m.3. A laboratory strain of grain weevils has developed resistance to mercury vapour in the egg stage, probably from contamination of an incubator. Such evidence as is available suggests that this resistance is associated with reduced chorion permeability rather than enhanced metabolic ability. The increase in resistance is such that no attainable concentration × time product will kill more than half the resistant egg population which is thus virtually in equilibrium with air saturated with mercury vapour. Fumigation of gravid females, or of wheat prior to oviposition, does not reduce the viability of any eggs subsequently laid.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1953

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Finney, D. J. (1947). Probit analysis.…—256 pp. London, Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Fisher, R. A. & Yates, F. (1948). Statistical tables for biological, agricultural and medical research.—3rd edn.London & Edinburgh, Oliver & Boyd.Google Scholar
Gorringe, B. S. (1950). Determination of fumigants. XXI. Preliminary experiments on the sorption of mercury vapour by wheat.—J. Sci. Fd. Agric., 1, pp. 114118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, O. W. (1945). The effect of mercury vapour on the eggs of Calandra granaria (L.) (Col., Curculionidae).—Bull. ent. Res., 36, pp. 283290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stringer, A. (1948). Relation between bioassay systems and the values found for toxicity of DDT.—Ann. appl. Biol., 35, pp. 527531.Google Scholar
Thompson, H. R. (1950). Truncated normal distributions.—Nature, 165, pp. 444445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, D. W. (1944). Mercury as a control for stored grain pests.—Bull. ent. Res., 35, pp. 143160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar