Abstract
Adults (black beetles), and to a lesser extent, larvae (white grubs), of Heteronychus arator rugifrons (Fairmaire) are major crop pests of cereals—particularly upland rice—in the central highlands of the island of Madagascar. Since the biology of this endemic subspecies is far less well understood than that of the African black beetle Heteronychus arator F., we undertook laboratory studies to determine the developmental durations of its immature stages at two temperatures, with measurements taken (body length and weight of all stages/instars, head capsule width of all larval instars). The mean immature stage development period was significantly shorter at 25°C (160.8 ± 11.60 d) than at 18°C (251.4 ± 11.93 d), mainly due to shorter egg incubation, L1 instar and pupal periods. Some morphological traits of immature stages confirmed that H. arator rugifrons is a distinct subspecies from H. arator. In particular, head capsule width was homogenous among larval instars, irrespective of the rearing temperature, with no overlap across instars. Head capsule width range was 1.04–1.52 for L1, 1.72–2.36 for L2, and 2.40–3.48 for L3. This information should be helpful in studies of population dynamics and economic threshold calculations with a view to management of this pest.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to late Bernard Vercambre for his useful advice in the design of these studies. Efforts for securing funding under MCR/2003/1155 contract by late Johnny Boyer, and for managing the project by Frédéric Chiroleu, are acknowledged. The authors thank Emile Rafamatanantsoa and Herlin Rakotosolofo for technical assistance, Andrew Hobson for correcting the English, and the anonymous reviewer whose useful comments helped improve the manuscript.
Funding
This study was funded by Réunion island regional council (contract # MCR/2003/1155 signed between Madagascar and Réunion) and FOFIFA and CIRAD core budgets.
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The authors declare that an earlier version of the presented work constituted a chapter of the PhD thesis (in French) of the first author, which cannot be considered as a prior publication.
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This article is dedicated to the memory of our colleagues and friends, Drs Bernard Vercambre and Johnny Boyer, who left us far too early respectively in August 2019 and in May 2015.
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Randriamanantsoa, R., Ratnadass, A. Development of immature stages of Heteronychus arator rugifrons (Fairmaire, 1871) (Coleoptera: Dynastidae), a major crop pest in Madagascar. Int J Trop Insect Sci 41, 2565–2571 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-021-00436-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-021-00436-4