Abstract

FERNANDEZ, Silvestre  and  CORDERO, Julio. Biology of Coffee Berry Borer H. hampei (Ferrari) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) under laboratory conditions. Bioagro [online]. 2007, vol.19, n.1, pp.35-40. ISSN 1316-3361.

The berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei) is the main insect-pest in the coffee producer countries. In this paper the biological cycle of the insect was studied in a material collected in 2004 in Andrés Eloy Blanco County, Lara State, Venezuela. The study was conducted at the Entomology Laboratory of INIA-Lara, under mean temperature and relative humidity of 27.1°C and 65.3 %, respectively. The average duration of the insect phases was 4.21 days for egg, 11.15 days for larvae, 2.66 days for pre-pupa, 5.29 days for pupa, and 103,3 days for adult female. The paper also describes some morphological characteristics of each phase. The following two larval instars were found: L1, with an average width of the cephalic capsule of 0.33 mm, and L2, with 0.52 mm wide. The pre oviposition period lasted 5.1 days, the egg fertility was 99.2 %, the fecundity was 43.0 eggs per adult female, and the sex ratio was 13.8 females per each male.

Keywords : Pest; development phases; coffee plant; Coffea arabica.