بتول قاسم كطيو الحسين

A series of experiments were carried out to isolate and identify the fungal species associated with wheat grains that infected with Khapra beetle Trogoderma granarium in addition to determine the Aspergillus flavus isolates ability to produce aflatoxins. The results showed that the infection of wheat grains with T. granarium was accompanied by appearance of different fungal species. Also, the number of A. flavus isolates that isolated from wheat grains which infected with T. granarium or the body of T. granarium larvae was significantly higher than other isolated fungal species, where 38 isolates of A. flavus were isolated from T. granarium and infected grains of wheat. The results of Ammonia test and Spectrophotometer test were showed that 24 and 36 out of 38 isolates had ability to produce aflatoxins. Key words: Trogoderma granarium, Aspergillus flavus, Ammonia test, Spectroscopy test

The khapra beetle, Trogoderma granarium is an important pest of stored wheat worldwide. The current study was carried out to evaluate the lethal and the sublethal three concentrations of neem oil on T. granarium. We also assessed the effect of neem oil on the growth of fungal species associated with T. granarium infected wheat grains. The results demonstrate that treating of wheat grains with 5% neem caused the highest mortality of T. granarium (82.3%). The results were also shown that application of neem oil decreased the percentage of weight loss of wheat grains and the percentage of egg hatching. In addition, the total number of fungal isolates associated with T. granarium infecting neem-treated wheat grains were 4 fungal isolates, compared to 13 fungal isolates from untreated wheat grains.The results demonstrate that neem oil has potential use as a biological control agents of T. granarium; however, further studies under commercial storage conditions are required.