COMPLEX OF INSECTS ATTACKING THE REPRODUCTIVE STRUCTURES OF COMMON BEANS (Phaseolus vulgaris L.): TIMES OF PRESENCE, INTENSITY OF INFESTATION AND DAMAGE

Abstract

An experiment was carried out during 1983-84 at the CIAT experimental Station in Palmira, Colombia, to iden­tify the damage caused by insects to the reproductive structures of the common bean plant. Four planting dates and the varieties Diacol-Calima, ICA-Pijao, and VRB-81023 were used. The lepidopterous Heliothis virescens and Pseudoplusia includens (Noctuídae), Strymon melinus (Hüb­ner) (Lycaenidae), Estigmene acrea (Drury) (Arctiidae), Maruca testulalis (Geyer) (Pyralidae), Epinotia aporema (Wasingham) and Cydia fabivora (Me­yrick) (Olethreutidae), leaf beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and stink bugs (Hemiptera: Pentadomidae) were found attacking buds, flowers, and pods. M. testulalis was one of the commonest insects found attacking pods from formation until physiolo­gical maturity. H. virescens perforated buds and pods from formation to phy­siological maturity while larvae of P. includens scraped the pod surfaces. E. aporema and C. fabivora penetrated pods of al' maturity groups including harvest-ready pods. In general, the chrysomelids appeared in all of the reproductive stages of the 3 varieties except for harvest maturity, although their damage to filling pods was res­tricted to secondary attacks in wounds that other insects, such as P. includens or virescens, opened.