Effect of combining tobacco cultivars of different alkaloid contents on the development of Lasioderma serricorne (F.) (Coleoptera Anobiidae)

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

The cigarette beetle, Lasioderma serricorne (F.) (Coleoptera: Anobiidae) is a universal feeder of stored tobacco, resulting in significant economic losses to tobacco manufacturing. Interestingly, few insects can and will infest tobacco due in part to nicotine toxicity. However, the cigarette beetle (CB) presumably metabolizes or secretes with little or no degradation the ingested nicotine allowing for the proliferation of CB progeny to infest stored tobacco. Although the effects of nicotine as an alkaloid have been characterized in the CB, it is not fully understood, nor are the effects of other alkaloids such as nornicotine, anabasine and anatabine with respect to a low nicotine level on the CB. Here we determine the influence of tobacco alkaloid content on population growth of the CB in the laboratory when fed on blends of different tobacco lines (TLA, TLB and TLG) that contained different concentrations of nicotine and three other minor alkaloids. Despite TLA and TLB had lower total alkaloid content than TLG (0.2, 1.1, and 3.5%, respectively), progeny production of CB was delayed only in TLB, suggesting that CB progeny suppression may not be, at least directly, dependent of nicotine content but positively correlated with increases in anatabine. Temperatures of 25° to 30 °C of stored tobacco resulted in severe infestations in mixtures of tobacco suitable for development. These findings indicate the potential to regulate insect infestation via alkaloid content utilizing low nicotine levels.