Eggs
The eggs are cemented to the surface of pulses and are smooth, domed structures with oval, flat bases.
Larva and Pupa
The larvae and pupae are normally only found in cells bored within the seeds of pulses. For a description and key to larvae of Callosobruchus spp., see Vats (1974).
Adult
C. chinensis adults are 2.0-3.5 mm long. The antennae are pectinate in the male, and serrate in the female. The elytra are pale brown, with small median dark marks and larger posterior dark patches, which may merge to make the entire posterior part of the elytra dark in colour. The side margins of the abdomen have distinct patches of coarse white setae, a feature that is shared with C. rhodesianus and C. theobromae. In common with other species of Callosobruchus, C. chinensis has a pair of distinct ridges (inner and outer) on the ventral side of each hind femur, and each ridge has a tooth near the apical end. The inner tooth is slender, rather parallel-sided, and equal to (or slightly longer than) the outer tooth.
Variations in morphological parameters may be induced by different host densities, whether development occurs in pods or in loose seeds (Nahdy et al., 1995), or by population source (George and Verma, 1997).
No particular detection or inspection methods for Callosobruchus spp. have been developed.
The potential exists for the development of population monitoring by use of sex pheromones. The existence of a female sex pheromone in C. chinensis was demonstrated by Honda and Yamamoto (1976), and Gharib et al. (1992), but the pheromone is not commercially available (Phillips, 1994;Plarre, 1998).
Related invasive species
- Callosobruchus chinensis
Related Farm Practice
- Development
- Hosts
- Pests
- Host plants
C. chinensis is a major pest of chickpeas (Pandey and Singh, 1997), lentils, green gram, broad beans, soybean (Srinivasacharyulu and Yadav, 1997;Yongxue et al., 1998a) adzuki bean and cowpeas in various tropical regions. It also attacks other pulses on occasions, but appears to be incapable of developing on common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris).
See Udayagiri and Wadhi (1989) for a full list of host plants.