Harmful insects and mites of stored seed corns in Adana province, Turkey

Aim of this work was to determine harmful pests of stored seed corns in silos and simple vertical warehouses in October 2010-September 2011 in Adana province, Turkey.In this work, a total of 14 pest insects species belong to three insect orders and seven insect families from Insecta class was identified. Additionally, Cheyletus sp. and Haemolaelaps berlese (Acarina: Laelapidae) as predatory mites, and larval parazitoid, Anisopteromalus calandra (How.) (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) were also detected.Sitophilus zeamais (Matsch.), Tribolium castaneum (Herb.), Sitophilus oryzae (L.), Liposcelus entomophila (Ender.), Cryptolestes ferrugineus (Steph.), Tribolium confusum (Duval.) and Cryptolestes turcicus (Grouv.) were more common pest insect species dwelling the stored seeds. Pest insect species, Oryzaephilus surinamensis (L.), Sitotroga cerealella (Oliver.) and Rhizopertha dominica (F.) were occasionally found in the silos or warehouses.The population densities of identified pest insects in the warehouses were usually greater than those found in the silos. Numbers of insects were usually high in summer months. No infestation of insects on seeds of newly harvested corns stored in commercial silos or warehouses in September-October was detected.While the highest ratio of injured seeds, due to attacks of primary insects of seed corns was 4%, the highest found in warehouse was 8%, the highest injured ratio on seeds in miniature vertical warehouse, which was not exposed to any insecticide application in a whole season, was 39.5% in October.