Groundnut pests

Abstract

There have been four major reviews of the literature discussing the insects living on groundnut plants since 1973 (Feakin, 1973; Smith and Barfield, 1982; Wightman et al., 1990 Wightman et al., 1990; Gahukar, 1992). There are also several more concise accounts dealing with pest problems in general (e.g. Wightman and Amin, 1988; Wightman et al., 1989Wightman et al., 1989; Lynch and Douce, 1992), specific topics, such as host plant resistance (Lynch, 1990), and discrete geographical zones such as India (Amin, 1988), developed countries (Biddle et al., 1992) and southern Africa (Wightman, 1988a; Wightman, 1989; Sohati and Sithanantham, 1990; Sithanantham et al., 1990). Feakin (1973), Redlinger and Davis (1982), Dick (1987a), Dick (1987b) and Wightman et al., 1990 Wightman et al., 1990 provide details of the insect pest problems associated with stored groundnut and their management in developed and developing countries. There is little more to add to what has already been recorded about the post-harvest pests of groundnut — the limited coverage given to them in this chapter should not be taken as an indication that they lack importance. Thus, although the general literature up to 20 years ago was somewhat sparse (despite the publication of a large body of information in primary sources), there have since been attempts to redress the situation.