Bioactivity of the essential oil extracted from Evodia rutaecarpa Hook f. et Thomas against the grain storage insects, Sitophilus zeamais Motsch and Tribolium castaneum (Herbst)
Zl. Liu et Sh. Ho, Bioactivity of the essential oil extracted from Evodia rutaecarpa Hook f. et Thomas against the grain storage insects, Sitophilus zeamais Motsch and Tribolium castaneum (Herbst), J STORED PR, 35(4), 1999, pp. 317-328
The toxic, repellent and feeding deterrent activities of the essential oil
extracted from Evodia rutaecarpa Hook f. et Thomas, were evaluated against
Sitophilus zeamais adults and Tribolium castaneum larvae and adults. Contac
t toxicity assayed by topical application showed that S. zeamais adults wer
e significantly more susceptible (LD50=0.043 mu g/mg body wt) to the essent
ial oil than T. castaneum adults (LD50 = 0.118 mu g/mg body wt) and larvae
(LD50 = 0.093-0.126 mu g/mg body wt). However, in the fumigation assays, S,
zeamais (LC50 = 41 mu g/L air) was less susceptible to the essential oil t
han T. castaneum (LC50 = 11.7 mu g/L air). When compared with larvae of var
ious ages, T. castaneum adults were more susceptible to the fumigant toxici
ty of the essential oil. Also, in the treated filter paper repellency test,
the essential oil was more repellent to T. castaneum than to S. zeamais. A
flour disk bioassay demonstrated that the essential oil of E. rutaecarpa h
ad a weaker feeding deterrent action against T. castaneum adults than again
st T. castaneum larvae and S, zeamais adults. The reduction in growth rate
of T. castaneum larvae and S. zeamais adults was mainly due to a behavioura
l (feeding deterrent) action rather than to post-ingestive toxicity of the
oil. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.