REPRODUCTIVE CAPACITY OF TWO STRAINS OF CRYPTOLESTES TURCICUS (COLEOPTERA: CUCUJIDAE)

Abstract

Cryptolestes turcicus (Grouvelle), an insect pest of flour mills and warehouses, is distributed in Canada from Alberta to Quebec (Sinha 1965). Barker (1967) showed a difference in susceptibility to methyl bromide between two strains of C. turcicus; one of these was from the Pest Infestation Laboratory, Slough, England, and the other was from a local flour mill. A fortuitous observation suggested that there might be a difference between the reproductive capacities of these two strains. A randomized block design experiment was designed to test this hypothesis. Reproduction was observed in three sets of beetles differing in population density; each set was replicated four times.