Studies on larval feeding of some new insect pests on wool-synthetic blend fabrics

Abstract

Seven common wool-synthetic blend fabrics containing polyester, terylene, viscose rayon and /or cotton were evaluated for their resistance to the larval feeding of five newly reported wool pests from India. Among the wool

pests, the larvae of <i>A</i><i>tta</i><i>genus fasc</i><i>iatu</i><i>s </i>(Thunberg) fed heavily and caused serious damage to all the blend fabrics. All blend fabrics were found resistant to the larvae of <i>A</i><i>tto</i><i>ge</i><i>nus</i> <i>bir</i><i>man</i><i>icus </i>Arrow, <i>Attagenus </i><i>indicu</i><i>s </i>Kalik, <i>A</i><i>tta</i><i>ge</i><i>nu</i><i>s</i> <i>l</i><i>ob</i><i>atus </i>Rosenhauer and <i>A</i><i>nthr</i><i>e</i><i>nu</i><i>s colo</i><i>ratus </i>Reitter, except the fabric blended with 50% and 55% viscose rayon which were not resistant to the larvae of <i>A</i><i>nthr</i><i>e</i><i>nu</i><i>s </i><i>colo</i><i>ratus.</i> Fabric with 50% viscose rayon was also not resistant

to the larvae of <i>A</i><i>tt</i><i>age</i><i>nu</i><i>s b</i><i>irm</i><i>anic</i><i>u</i><i>s. </i>Synthetic fibre pieces were not digested by the larvae of pests as these were passed out unchanged from their digestive tract in excreta.