Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T23:31:43.881Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Sorghum Midge, Contarinia sorghicola (Coq.), in East Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Q. A. Geering
Q. A. Geering
Affiliation:
Empire Cotton Growing Corporation, Cotton Research Station, Namulonge, Uganda.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Contarinia sorghicola was discovered in Uganda in 1951, the only previous African record being from the Sudan. The infestation started in September in early varieties of sorghum grown in observation plots and reached a peak onlate varieties and ratoons in early March, thereafter declining as parasitism, chiefly by Tetrastichus sp. and Aprostocetus sp., increased to reach 100 per cent. in April.

The life-cycle was normally 19–25 days, but between December and April diapause larvae were found; these all produced adults in early August, following a period of high humidity.

Midges morphologically indistinguishable from C. sorghicola have been bred from Eleusine coracana and from wild Sorghum verticilliflorum in Uganda, and the midge may well be endemic wherever wild sorghums grow. Enquiries show that midge damage to sorghum occurs in Kenya, Tanganyika and Nyasaland, and it is likely that all the mainsorghum growing areas of Africa will prove to be infested.

The possible occurrence of resistance is discussed.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , July 1953 , pp. 363 - 366
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1953

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anson, R. R. (1952). Aden Protectorate. The Abyan Scheme and Cotton Experiment Station, season 1951–52.—Progr. Rep. Exp. Stas Emp. Cott. Gr. Corp., Aden 1951–52, 5 pp.Google Scholar
Callan, E. McC. (1941). The gall midges (Diptera, Cecidomyidae) of economic importance in the West Indies.—Trop. Agriculture, 18, pp. 117–127.Google Scholar
Callan, E. McC. (1945). Distribution of the Sorghum Midge.—J. econ. Ent., 38, pp. 719–720.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiaromonte, A. (1949). Precisazioni su Contarinia sorghicola Coq. nell'Africa orientale italiana.—Riv. Agric. subtrop., 43, pp. 195–198.Google Scholar
Cowland, J. W. (1936). The Sorghum Midge in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.—Ann. appl. Biol., 23, pp. 110–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evelyn, S. H. (1951). Sorghum breeding in the Sudan.—World Crops, 3, pp. 65–68.Google Scholar
Walter, E. V. (1941). The biology and control of the Sorghum Midge.—Tech. Bull. U.S. Dep. Agric., no. 778, 26 pp.Google Scholar