Quantitative and Qualitative Losses in Chickpea var. Desi Channa due to Suidasia nesbitti Hughes (Arachnida: Acari)

Abstract

Background: Suidasia nesbitti Hughes (Arachnida: Acari) infests variety of food stuffs and feed on whole grains, broken grains and flour of chickpea and causes qualitative and quantitative losses. The mite infestation resulted in significant decrease in the protein, total soluble sugars, non-reducing sugars and starch content of all the three forms of Bengal gram at 90 and 180 days of infestation. In contrast, reducing sugars significantly increased with increase in S. nesbitti infestation period. Methods: Exposure of whole, broken grains and flour of chickpea var., Desi channa to Suidasia nesbitti (Acari: Suidasiidae) population was studied during monthly data analysis. Result: The results showed that between the three forms, Desi channa flour harboured significantly more number of mites (4226.00 mites/g channa) than broken (2478.66 mites/g channa) and whole (260.00 mites/g channa) grains. Irrespective of forms, maximum number of mites was recorded at 180 days. Progressive blackening of broken grains and flour of Desi channa was witnessed with increase in observation period and the infested material emitted characteristic pungent odour.