Abstract
Summary Eggs of G. rhomboidalis are usually laid singly in separate excavations made with the snout of the beetle in either leaf petioles or tender portions of shoots of host plants, Amaranthus sp. At field temperatures fluctuating between 19°C and 30°C and in contact with water, eggs hatched in a mean of 2·8 days while unmoistened ones shrivelled up. Beetle larvae bore and feed on the stele of host plants where development, up to adulthood, is completed in self-made larval galleries. On the average, the larvae are capable of consuming 40% and above of the cross-sectional areas of stems of infected host plants. In nature, multiple infection of host plants was quite common with 1–16 beetle larvae/plant rather usual. Consequently, the stem of virtually every healthy-looking host plant is internally traversed by larval galleries, at times even below ground level. Adults bite their way out of the stem after a mean of 36·37 days from date of oviposition. Larval damages to host plants are the gravest and bring ...
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