FIELD SCREENING OF PISUM ACCESSIONS TO EVALUATE THEIR SUSCEPTIBILITY TO THE PEA WEEVIL (COLEOPTERA, BRUCHIDAE)

Seventeen unreplicated field trials over nine sites and four years wer e used to classify Pisum germplasm (P. sativum L. & P. fulvum Sibth. & Sm) as potential sources of resistance to the pea weevil, Bruchus pis orum (L.). The emergence of adult weevils from < 10% of harvested seed was used as the selection criterion to indicate possible resistance. A total of 1900 Pisum accessions were assessed using the field trials and 1754 of the P. sativum accessions were eliminated. However in the 18 P. fulvum accessions screened, the level of infestation by pea weev il was always below the arbitrary resistance threshold selected. This suggests that P. fulvum accessions could be a valuable source of resis tance to the pea weevil.