ASSESSMENT OF QUANTITATIVE LOSSES IN DIFFERENT WHEATVARIETIES DUE TO RICE WEEVIL (SITOPHILUS ORYZAE L.)REHANA AKBAR, MAGDESHWAR SHARMA, DEVINDER SHARMA,RAHEEBA TUNNISA AND AMREENA AKHTERAbstract A rapidly rising population and a shift in food preferences away from traditional cereals andtowards wheat and wheat products are driving up wheat consumption. Storage pests, particularlySitophilus oryzae, is one of the important insect pest, damages stored wheat grains, degrading thequality and quantity of the commodities by diminishing nutrition content and rendering themunfit for human use. To overcome such problems a study was undertaken to assess the quantitativelosses caused by rice weevil in different wheat varieties during different storage periods so thatto choose most resistant variety. This study was undertaken during 2018-2019 under laboratoryconditions, different wheat varieties viz, VL 907, RSP 561, WH 1080, HD 3086, WH1105 wereassessed for quantitative losses caused by rice weevil Sitophilus oryzae. The assessed parameterswere adult emergence, per cent seed damage, per cent weight loss and per cent avoidable losses.Our investigation revealed that among the wheat varieties WH 1080 was found least susceptiblewith minimum number of progeny emergence (21.9), least seed damage (5.77%) and weight loss(1.50%) up to six months of storage period while as RSP 561 was highly susceptible with maximumnumber of progeny emergence (94.6), highest seed damage (69.3 %) and weight loss (23.6 %). |