Amaranthus
is one of those rare plants whose leaves are eaten as vegetables and
seeds as cereal. Unfortunately, one of the major factors limiting the productivity of
Amaranthus
is the incidence of insect pests attack. The aim of this study was to determine the insect pest
occurrence on cultivated Amaranths in Benin City, Nigeria. The experiment was conducted in
the Agricultural farm of University of Benin, Edo State, Nigeria. Three varieties of Amaranth
were used for this experiment, namely,
Amaranthus cruentus
(white–seeded),
Amaranthus hybridus
(red–seeded) and
Amaranthus hybridus (black–seeded). The experimental design used
was completely randomized design with three replicates, each replicate having nine plots. The
result showed the diversity of insect pests associated with Amaranth. Insects found on Amaranth
were classified into seven (7) orders, namely Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera,
Orthoptera, Hymenoptera and Mantodea; and eight (8) species. The species included
Gasteroclisus rhomboidalis and
Hypolixus sp. (Coleoptera);
Hymenia recurvalis and
Psara sp.
(Lepidoptera);
Liriomyza sp. (Diptera);
Cletus sp. and
Aspavia armigera (Hemiptera) and
Zonocerus variegates (Orthoptera). Majority of the pests are defoliators, except
Cletus sp. and
Aspavia armigera that attack grains. The result also revealed that the period of pest occurrence
is associated with Amaranth age. Knowledge from this study can be employed by Amaranth
growers to ensure proper management of these insect pests.
