Kesesuaian Lima Jenis Komoditas Pascapanen Sebagai Media Perkembangbiakan Hama Gudang Ephestia cautella (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

Abstract

Ephestia cautella is one of major pest that attack various kinds of postharvest commodities during storage. The objective of this research was to study the suitability of cocoa beans, peanuts, rice, wheat flour, and maizena as development media for E. cautella and to know the preferences of egg laying by adults to those five commodities. One hundred eggs of E. cautella were infested into 500 g of those commodities within one liter plastic container and kept in the laboratory for 49 days. Variables observed were number of F1 emerged, development time, length and width of larvae, pupae, and adults, and the demaged they caused to the commodities. Five pairs of F1 adults then infested onto 100 g of those five commodities within insect cages and observed for number of egg laid after one week. The results showed that life cycle of E. cautella on cocoa beans, peanuts, rice, wheat flour, and maizena were 45, 49, 46, 47, 48 days, respectively. The highest number of F1 adults emerged were found on peanut. For third instar, the longest larval body were found on rice and the widest ones were found on peanuts, meanwhile the longest and widest for fourth instar larval bodies were found on cocoa beans. The longest pupal body length were found on peanuts. The average length of F1 adults were 6-7 mm and the average of wing span were 12- 14 mm. Meanwhile the highest number of egg deposited by F1 adults were found on rice and the lowest on maizena. The demaged caused by larval activity were feeding holes on cocoa beans and peanuts, meanwhile the other commodities were spun together with their silk.