REVIEW ON MAJOR STORAGE INSECT PESTS OF CEREALS AND PULSES

Insect pests are the most successful and diverse groups of animals on earth and are closely related to our lives and affect the welfare of humans in diverse ways. A vast number of pest species are related to stored commodities. From this pest species, storage insect pests are a major threat to grain storage and other stored products and they cause direct and indirect losses of grain on the storage. Cereals and pulses are attacked in stores by different insect pests and other storage pests. The three orders of insect Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, and Psocoptera contain species that are major pests on stored products. The two major groups Coleoptera and Lepidoptera insects harbor the most economically important post-harvest insect pests. Some of the storage insect pests which attack storage grains are rice weevil, maize weevil, lesser grain borer, granary weevil, Angoumois grain moth, khapra beetle, Indian meal moth, red flour beetle, and pulse beetles. Callosobruchus chinensis, Callosobruchus maculatus, and Callosobruchus analis are the three commonly known pulse beetle species in stored pulses. Hence the objective of this paper is to review the major insect pests of stored grains and their management methods. Insect infestation occurs in stored grains and grain products to a variable extent depending upon the storage conditions in developing countries. Under farmers’ storage grain losses are further aggravated by poor post-harvest handling, inefficient storage facilities, and inadequate pest management systems. The stored grain pests infest grains during storage to fulfill their food and shelter requirements as a result they cause quantitative and qualitative losses. Globally, the quantitative losses of stored grain vary from developed countries to undeveloped countries. To reduce the losses management of storage insect pests by using physical, biological, botanical, chemical, host plant resistance, and integrated pest management methods are essential for the control of stored product insect pests.