Population growth and development of Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) on enriched flour with riboflavin

Abstract

Present study was undertaken to determine the effect of riboflavin addition in diet against the population growth and development of T. castaneum. Two factors were explored, the first factor was the type of diet (corn flour, rice flour, and rice bran) and the second factor was the addition of riboflavin concentration (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 mg/kg). Each treatment combinations was repeated four times and this research was arranged by completely randomized design. The research was carried out by investing 15 pairs of T. castaneum adults into the treatment combinations. The observed variables for the population growth were the number of eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults (F1), while for the development time were egg, larva, pupa stadium, and pre-oviposition. Data were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 5% error level. Results showed that the number of larvae and pupae were significantly influenced by the interaction of diet type and riboflavin addition, while the number of eggs and adults were not. The number of adults was significantly influenced by each factors individually. The number of adults was higher on corn flour for diet type than others, and on 30, 40, and 50 mg/kg for riboflavin addition. Meanwhile, all variable observed of development time was simultaneously affected by both factors. The faster development was on rice bran with 10 mg/kg riboflavin addition, which was not significantly different to rice bran with 20, 30 and 50 mg/kg riboflavin, rice flour with no riboflavin addition, and corn flour with 30 and 40 mg/kg riboflavin addition.