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Abstract
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
Introduction
Chickpea (cicer arietinum) is a valuable pulse crop belongs to family Leguminosae also known as the pea or bean family. Chickpea contributes about 15% of the world's total pulse production [1]. In human diet, it is a big source of protein about 20%, which fulfills the protein requirement of the people, especially in rural areas of Pakistan [2]. In Pakistan, it is cultivated on an area of about 985 thousand hectares, which produces about 673 thousand tons of chickpea [3]. Two main types of chickpea differ from each other in seed size, shape and colour. The first type is Desi, small and brown seeds and second is Kabuli, with large white colour seeds. In Thal areas of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, it is grown in rainfed conditions as its production totally depends upon rainfall. In Sindh and Baluchistan, it is grown on residual moisture after rice...