Entomology, Ornithology & Herpetology: Current Research
Open Access

Abstract

Toxic Effect of Some Plant Extracts on the Mortality of Flour Beetle Tribolium confusum (Duval) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

Wand Khalis Ali and Hena Hashim Mohammed

The study was carried out in the Entomology Laboratory of the Department of Biology, College of Science, Salahaddin University, Erbil, Kurdistan Region, and Iraq. Methanol extracts of six local plants (Anethum graveolens, Apium graveolens, Eucalyptus glauca, Malva parviflora, Mentha longifolia and Zingiber officinale) were studied for their toxicity effect on mortality of the last larval stage of Tribolium confusum by assessing the mortality value of the larvae for different plant extracts and different exposure times (1-5 hrs) and estimating the value of LT50 for each plant extract. The mortality were varying from plant to plant as follows: Anethum graveolens reached its maximum value of 56.67% at 4.5 hrs, for Eucalyptus glauca it was 90% at 2 hrs., for Apium graveolens it was 93.33% at 5 hrs exposure and Mentha longifolia it was 93.33% at 4 hrs, while for Malva parviflora reached 96.67% at 3 hrs, and for Zingiber officinale reached its maximum value of 100% at 2 hrs. The LT50 values for T. confusum ranged from 1.111 for Zingiber officinale to 3.146 for Anethum graveolens whiles the obtained LT50 values were 2.451, 1.392, 1.364 and 1.143 for Apium graveolens, Mentha longifolia, Malva parviflora and Eucalyptus glauca respectively. The results indicate that Zingiber officinale was the most toxic plant and Anethum graveolens the least toxic.