Role of Maize Weevil, Sitophilus zeamais Motsch. on Spread of Aspergillus section flavi in Different Nepalese Maize Varieties

K Bhusal,D Khanal

doi:10.1155/2019/7584056

Abstract

Experiments were conducted to find out the role of maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais Motsch. on spread of green fungus, Aspergillus section flavi, in different varieties of stored maize in laboratory in 2016. Lab experiment was conducted to find the role of weevil on spread of A. flavus on five main varieties of maize grown at Nepal in split plot design, namely, Arun-2, Arun-4, Manakamana-1, Manakamana-3, and Rampur composite with three replications at NAST, Khumaltar, from August to September 2016. One hundred grams of each maize variety was exposed to weevil along with fungus and with fungus only to see the spread of the fungus under presence and absence of weevil. Among the tested five maize varieties, the lowest infestation was observed on Rampur Composite (14.99%) while it was the highest on Manakamana-3 (87.70%). The highest mean infestation (75.58%) was found under weevil released condition while it was lower (62.16%) under nonreleased condition. In presence of weevil, the infestation of the fungus increased and in their absence the infestation was low which signifies the role of weevil in fungal spread. All indices indicate that Rampur composite is the best variety among the five tested varieties in terms of storage under the presence of fungus and weevils. This study also indicates ample scope for further study on different varieties of maize under several storage conditions.

Highlights

Maize (Zea mays L.), belonging to the family Poaceae or Gramineae, is a kind of grass related to rice, wheat, barley, and oat, ranking second in area cultivated and first in production and productivity in order of world grain production [1]
The maximum infestation of the fungus was obtained on Manakamana-3 variety while the lowest infestation was obtained on Rampur composite
Manakamana-3 variety had the highest damage while Rampur composite, Arun-2, and Arun-4 had the lowest damage

Summary

Introduction

Maize (Zea mays L.), belonging to the family Poaceae or Gramineae, is a kind of grass related to rice, wheat, barley, and oat, ranking second in area cultivated and first in production and productivity in order of world grain production [1]. It is popularly known as queen of cereals, because of very high yield potential than any other cereals [2]. The spread of the green fungus in maize seed is a great problem in stored maize and the metabolic activities of weevil linked in the spread of spores of the fungus are a major reason for the research

Materials and Methods

Laboratory Experiments

Conclusions