Post-harvest insect pest directory
Tobacco beetle
Scientific name: Lasioderma serricorne (Fabricius)
- Order
- Coleoptera
- Classification
- Secondary
- Incubation at 20 C
- 6-10 days
- Incubation at 30 C
- 4-6 days
Description
Lasioderma serricorne (Fabricius), the tobacco beetle: Adults are minute (2.0–3.5 mm), reddish-brown, with a compact, oval habitus. Larvae are creamy white and densely setose, bearing numerous long setae. As development nears completion, larvae adopt a crescentiform (C‑shaped) posture and become progressively less mobile.
Detection
Typical signs of Lasioderma serricorne (Fabricius), the tobacco beetle, in stored grain include: larval cocoons (loosely spun silk incorporating grain dust), powdery frass and boring dust (fines) within the lot, and adult residues such as dead beetles, fragmented elytra and legs, and cast larval exuviae. These indicators, observed in the commodity or packaging, point to an active or past infestation.
Damages
Larvae are the injurious stage in stored cereals. They feed directly on the commodity, consuming kernels and milled fractions and causing measurable loss. Their feeding generates frass (insect excreta) that contaminates lots, degrading sanitation and market value. To reach the contents, larvae bore through packaging, leaving characteristic perforations and compromising pack integrity.
Environment
Lasioderma serricorne is a thermophilic, hygrophilous stored‑product beetle, thriving in warm, humid warehouses and silos holding dry commodities—grains, spices, tobacco—where high relative humidity and steady heat accelerate development and infestations.
Infested products
Tobacco, seeds, spices, medicines, grains, cereal products, dried leaves, furniture, pepper, ginger, rhubarb, insects, dried meats and fish, fish meal, rice, figs, yeasts, and many other dried products.
Life cycle
Lasioderma serricorne completes a holometabolous cycle in stored commodities. After mating, females oviposit tens of eggs directly among grain dust or packaged products. Eggs hatch in about one week; cryptic, cream larvae pass through 4–5 instars, feeding within the substrate and producing frass that contaminates stocks. Mature larvae spin a silk-and-frass cocoon and pupate; the teneral adult ecloses and soon hardens its elytra. Adults are short-lived (around 25 days), do not feed on the commodity, but may gnaw packaging and nearby structures, aiding spread. Mating occurs shortly after emergence; adults disperse readily by flight. Under warm, humid conditions a generation can be completed in 6–8 weeks, enabling multiple overlapping generations annually in storage facilities.
Geographical distribution
Worldwide, more abundant in subtropical and tropical regions than in temperate regions.
Similar species
Drugstore beetle (Stegobium paniceum) – Unlike the cigarette beetle, the drugstore beetle has striated elytra and lacks serrate antennae.