Pea Bug

[rktpro]

I have been peeling peas recently. I have observed small insects crawling out of the pea. Also I have observed some white colored substance on it. Do you know what the insect is called (scientific name) and to which phyla it belongs. Also what is that white substance?

[Blahah]

There are many thousands of insects it could be, do you have any photographs or can you at least give a more exact description?

 

 

Was the white substance on the peas or the insect? Was it solid or liquid? And if solid, was it powdery, crystaline, what?

Edited March 21, 2011 by Blahah

[rktpro]

It crawled out of the pea-bean. It eats the bean actually.

The white substance was solid and had moisture. It stick to the inner wall of pea-shell.

[Blahah]

Sorry when I said a more exact description I meant a physical description...

 

Anyway there's a reasonable chance that it was a seed beetle (also known as bean weevils, although they aren't true weevils) of some sort, in the family Bruchidae.

 

They are mostly extremely small, usually less than 1mm. They lay their eggs on seeds, especially seeds of legumes (plant family Fabaceae). The larva chew into the seed and eat the endosperm and sometimes the cotyledons of the seed, then pupate. The adult beetle emerges from the seed.

 

You can get anything from one to dozens of weevils inside one seed. We have a collection of them here at work (the Millennium Seed Bank) which we have extracted during the cleaning of incoming seed specimens.

[rktpro]

It was approximately 1cm (the biggest one). Also, in one seed I found only one bug. And Been Weevil looks totally different from the bug I saw. It was an earthworm like mini creature! It crawled!

How you extract Bee Weevil?

[Blahah]

OK, this is why I asked you for a description at the beginning, so we didn't have to go back and forth with guesses.

 

So, can you just describe exactly what it looked like? Answer the following questions:

 

1. What colour was it?
2. How many legs did it have?
3. Could you see wings?
4. Was it obviously segmented (like a beetle or centipede) or did it look smooth and continuous (like a worm)?
5. Did it look hard (chitinous) or soft?
6. What were the approximate dimensions? (i.e. length, width)
7. What species of plant were the peas from? Was it Pisum sativum?

I've never heard of a Bee Weevil, but we remove bean weevils from seeds with forceps under a microscope. Usually we can spot them in x-rays or when we cut-test seeds (to see if they are healthy).

[Phi for All]

There are many thousands of insects it could be, do you have any photographs or can you at least give a more exact description?

rktpro, can you understand now how great a photograph would be? If you don't have a digital camera, then please be extremely detailed in your description and answer ALL the questions asked of you if you want meaningful answers back.

[rktpro]

rktpro, can you understand now how great a photograph would be? If you don't have a digital camera, then please be extremely detailed in your description and answer ALL the questions asked of you if you want meaningful answers back.

 

I have a digital camera but I don't have peas anymore. The season has ended.

 

So, can you just describe exactly what it looked like? Answer the following questions:

 

 

So, can you just describe exactly what it looked like? Answer the following questions:

• What colour was it?
• How many legs did it have?
• Could you see wings?
• Was it obviously segmented (like a beetle or centipede) or did it look smooth and continuous (like a worm)?
• Did it look hard (chitinous) or soft?
• What were the approximate dimensions? (i.e. length, width)
• What species of plant were the peas from? Was it Pisum sativum?

 

1- Green colour. And it can't be pea leaf weevil's larvae because it is white in colour.

2- I am not sure about this. Legs were tiny or it might have no legs. It crawled.

3-No wings.

4-It looked like a worm. But it can be Annelida(segmented) or Nematoda( non-segmented)

5- No outer chitin was there.

6- The biggest one was nearly 1cmX1mm. The width might be even less. The smaller ones were upto 7-8 mm length.

7- Exactly. It was Pisum sativum

Edited March 24, 2011 by rktpro

[Blahah]

If it was green, it's most likely a Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) larva. It sounds very likely to be a caterpillar.

 

What country do you live in? I may be able to suggest a species.

 

The white substance may have been silk or faeces.

 

If it looks like this:

 

 

 

it's a Cydia nigricana, the pea moth larva. The powdery white/green stuff is faeces, and its colour depends on how developed the peas are when they eat them and what species of legume they are eating.

 

The adults look like this:

Edited March 24, 2011 by Blahah

[rktpro]

If it was green, it's most likely a Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) larva. It sounds very likely to be a caterpillar.

 

What country do you live in? I may be able to suggest a species.

 

The white substance may have been silk or faeces.

 

If it looks like this:

 

 

 

it's a Cydia nigricana, the pea moth larva. The powdery white/green stuff is faeces, and its colour depends on how developed the peas are when they eat them and what species of legume they are eating.

 

The adults look like this:

 

Yes! You got the right image:and the right name too.I live in India.