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First report on occurrence of Prostephanus truncatus in Senegal

Article in African Entomology · August 2008

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 First report on occurrence of the larger grain borer Prostephanus truncatus
(Horn) (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) in Senegal
Author(s): M. T. Gueye, G. Goergen, D. Badiane, K. Hell, and L. Lamboni
Source: African Entomology, 16(2):309-311. 2008.
Published By: Entomological Society of Southern Africa
DOI: 10.4001/1021-3589-16.2.309
URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.4001/1021-3589-16.2.309

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First report on occurrence of the larger grain borer Prostephanus truncatus (Horn)
(Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) in Senegal

M.T. Gueye *, G. Goergen , D. Badiane , K. Hell & L. Lamboni

1 2 3 2 2

1
Institut de Technologie Alimentaire (ITA), BP 2765 – Dakar, Senegal
2
International Institut of Tropicale Agriculture (IITA), 08 BP 0932 – Cotonou, Benin
3
Institut Sénégalais de Recherche Agricole (ISRA), BP 53 – Kolda, Senegal

In Africa the larger grain borer, Prostephanus
truncatus (Horn) (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) (Fig. 1)
is a serious pest of stored commodities mainly of
stored maize, dried cassava roots and to a lesser
extent yam chips. This bostrichid pest of meso-
American origin was accidentally introduced into
Africa some 30 years ago and started to spread over
the continent from two geographically disparate
points. The first recognized outbreaks of P. trun-
catus were reported in the late 1970s from East
Africa, in the Tabora, Shinyanga and Mwanza
regions of western Tanzania. Subsequently P. trun-
catus was found to be established in Togo, West
Africa, in 1984 (Farrell & Schulten 2002). From
there the pest gradually spread in the neighboring
countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria,
reaching Guinea Conakry in 1988 and Guinea
Bissau in 1998 (Aman et al. 2007). The most recent
published data on the geographical distribution of
P. truncatus indicate that the pest currently occurs in
at least 16 African countries (Nansen & Meikle
2002). The success of P. truncatus as an invasive
species may be partly due to its ability to develop
*To whom correspondence should be addressed.
E-mail: mgueye@ita.sn
and reproduce in woody substrates (Nang’ayo
1996) including forest seeds (Nansen et al. 2004)
and wooden frames of storage structures (Meikle
et al. 2002a). This versatile behaviour led Borge-
meister et al. (1998) to conduct ecological studies in
a forest habitat in West Africa, where the pest was
found in presence of its introduced natural enemy
Teretrius (formerly Teretriosoma) nigrescens (Coleop-
tera: Histeridae). Complementary information on
the adult, larval morphology and systematic posi-
tion of P. truncatus was provided by Farrell &
Haines (2002).
Maize is an important staple food crop in many
African countries. In Senegal, however, maize
production has remained marginal even in the
main cropping areas in the eastern and southern
regions of the country, where the mean annual
rainfall has notably decreased over the last two
decades. On a country-wide level, maize produc-
tion increased between 1960 and 1990 and then re-
duced somewhat between 1991 and 2000 (Ndiaye
et al. 2005). In 2003, however, a special programme
to promote maize was launched in the framework
of a crop diversification initiative for food safety
and resulted in an increase of the maize produc-

Fig. 1. Adult of Prostephanus truncatus.

African Entomology 16(2): 309–311 (2008)

310 African Entomology Vol. 16, No. 2, 2008
tion by more than 400 %. To attain this objective,
the importation of seed maize was liberalized and
exempted from quarantine restrictions; this action
may have increased the risk for the introduction of
new exotic pests.
To the best of our knowledge, because of the
relatively low production of maize in Senegal
prior to the lifting of the import restrictions, few
studies were conducted on post-harvest losses of
this crop due to insects. Most of the work presently
achieved has focused on insect pests of millet,
groundnut, cowpea and cotton. However, follow-
ing the approval of a research project by the
Senegalese National Fund for Agricultural and
Agro-alimentary Research, a fresh approach is
being taken to address this gap. Following prelimi-
nary surveys carried out in 18 villages and 48
grain stores in the eastern and southern areas of
Senegal during November to December 2006,
further routine controls took place four months
later at the same locations to check for possible
occurrence of insect pests associated with stored
maize. Thus the presence of P. truncatus was
detected for the first time in Senegal during the
period 2–7 March 2007, specifically at two sites
in the department of Kolda: Vélingara Boydo
(12°50’57”N 15°02’36”W) and Mankagne Sory
(12°54’35”N 14°57’01”W). The first locality is 19 km
from the Guinea Conakry border and the latter at
20 km. Samples of the bostrichid pest were also
found at Habibou (Tambacounda region, Kédou-
gou department), located at only 16 km from the
Guinea Conakry border (12°29’20”N 12°17’26”W).
In all instances the maize was dehusked after
harvest, dried for about 2 months either on racks at
2 m height on a platform of 6 m2 (Vélingara Boydo
and Habibou) or on bare ground (Mankagne Sory)
and then transferred into storehouses when the
corn moisture content was reduced to about 10 %.
Under these storage conditions, further insect
pests, mainly Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky
(Coleoptera: Curculionidae) and to a lesser extent
Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Colleoptera: Tene-
brionidae) and Rhyzopertha dominica (Fabricius)
(Col.: Bostrichidae) occurred concomitantly with
the new bostrichid beetle causing storage losses
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The arrival of P. truncatus in Senegal calls for the
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the same plague situation as experienced in the
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newly introduced high yield maize varieties will
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial
assistance provided by the Fond National de
Recherche Agricole et Agro-alimentaire (FNRAA)
which supported this work and team members of
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Accepted 4 August 2008