LAUSR

Chickpea is an important pulse food that fulfills the requirement of the staple food. Callosobruchus maculatus (cowpea weevil) is the most important destructive pest that causes severe economic losses in quantity and nutritional quality. The present work is on the susceptibility of cowpea weevil on four main varieties of chickpea of Pakistan (KP-8mm, KC-12mm, KE-9mm and Desi kala chana). The study was conducted for a period of four months from September to December 2015, under room conditions at moderate temperature of 27±2 °C and 60±5% relative humidity with12 hour light and dark cycle to produce many generations of cowpea weevil. Ten pairs of newly emerged adults were released in plastic jars having 100 gram of each of four varieties. All the varieties were checked after the interval of fifteen days to observe the intensity of seed damage by the C. maculatus. The highest consumption was observed in KP-8 mm and KC-12 mm 85gm, 79gm respectively, while KE-9 mm showed relatively low consumption that was 71gm, and Desi kala chana was least consumed 62gm by cowpea weevil. The susceptible varieties exhibited soft, moreover, smooth seed coat and white in colour whereas least susceptible had hard and wrinkled seed coat. Based on present observation, it is noted that by growing tolerant varieties infestation of chickpea by cowpea weevil can be limited. Keywords: Susceptibility; Cowpea weevil; Chickpea http://dx.doi.org/10.19045/bspab.2017.60047