DEVELOPMENT OF A PC-BASED AUTOMATIC MONITORING-SYSTEM FOR TRIBOLIUM-CASTANEUM (HERBST) (COLEOPTERA, TENEBRIONIDAE) IN A RICE WAREHOUSE

Flight traps were constructed and hung 6 m from the floor of a rice wa rehouse, with a 5 m polyvinyl chloride (PVC) tube attached to the base of each trap, The PVC tube channelled any Tribolium castaneum (Herbst ) caught into a plastic specimen vial at the bottom, A pair of traps w as placed at each of four designated locations in the warehouse. One o f the pair of traps at each location had the vial resting on a top pan balance. The four balances were interfaced with an IBM-compatible per sonal computer, The signals from the balances were recorded as the wei ghts of the insects by the computer sequentially and continually, The other trap at each location was set 1 m from the computer-controlled t rap and acted as a reference trap. The insects collected from it were weighed manually on a daily basis, Trap catches using both methods wer e recorded for 50 days, The system was not influenced by temperature a nd r.h. changes, and dust fall was negligible. The weights of individu al live beetles recorded monthly for 6 months did not change significa ntly. Thus the weights obtained during monitoring could be converted t o the number of T. castaneum. A good correlation was obtained between the computer and manual trap catches, with a mean correlation coeffici ent of 0.898 (P < 0.001). These results demonstrate the feasibility of using a technique which monitors flight trap catches electronically a nd remotely. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.