Ife Journal of Science vol. 16, no. 3 (2014) 505 INFLUENCE OF FOUR CEREAL FLOURS ON THE GROWTH OF TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM HERBST (COLEOPTERA: TENEBRIONIDAE) *Kayode O. Y., Adedire C. O. and Akinkurolere R. O. Department of Biology, Food Storage Technology Programme, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria Corresponding Author:
[email protected] (Received: 8th August, 2014; Accepted: 6th October, 2014) ABSTRACT The influence of four cereals namely, flours of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.)Moench) and maize (Zea mays L.)on the growth and development of T. castaneum was investigated at ambient tropical laboratory conditions of 30±3˚C and relative humidity of 75±5%. The anti- nutrients, mineral profile and proximate compositions of the four flour types and their effects on the developmental activity of the flour beetle were studied. Results showed that the moisture content of the cereal flours ranged from 7.64% in wheat to 9.24% in maize, while protein content ranged from 10.91% in millet to 17.23% in wheat flour and the ash content in the flours ranged from 1.05% in maize to 2.59% in millet. However, the four cereal flours had sufficient nutrients to support the growth of T. castaneum. Millet flour had the highest number of larvae (435.50±0.85) at 56-day post-infestation thus depicting millet flour as the most preferred flour type for oviposition and egg incubation; while the lowest (286.25±0.41) number of larvae was obtained in maize flour and it was significantly lower (p≤0.05) than the number of emerging larvae in other flour types.