Last night we had the disturbing experience of cutting open a mango that we had been eating (and enjoying) to find a large hard beetle like animal crawl out, with lots of small black eggs behind it......
Horror, repulsion and shock were among the first reactions....
Of course, we had to google....
this is what we discovered...
The insect pest inside the mangoes is the mango nut weevil or stone weevil, ‘Sternochetus Mangiferae’. The young one or grubs as soon as they hatch out from the eggs tunnel in a zig zag manner through the pulp, endocarp and the seed coat and finally reach the cotyledons. As the fruit develops, the tunnel gets closed. The grub feeds on the cotyledons and destroys them. The adult emerges from the pupae also and feeds on the developing seed and this may hasten the maturity of infested fruits. The adult emerges from the pupae also and feeds on the developing seed and this may hasten the maturity of infested fruits. The adults hibernate in between the crevices on the tree trunks. The weevil attacks only mangoes. The dark brownish stout weevil measures about 6mm long. The female scoops out the surface of the developingfruit and deposits the egg singly. On a fruit 12 to 36 eggs may be deposited. The fluid that oozes from the fruit covers the eggs. The incubation period is 7 days. The grub is apodous, fleshly, light yellow with a dark head and pupates inside the nut itself. It emerges as an adult in 7 days. The total life cycle from eggs to adult is 50.
Horror, repulsion and shock were among the first reactions....
Of course, we had to google....
this is what we discovered...
The insect pest inside the mangoes is the mango nut weevil or stone weevil, ‘Sternochetus Mangiferae’. The young one or grubs as soon as they hatch out from the eggs tunnel in a zig zag manner through the pulp, endocarp and the seed coat and finally reach the cotyledons. As the fruit develops, the tunnel gets closed. The grub feeds on the cotyledons and destroys them. The adult emerges from the pupae also and feeds on the developing seed and this may hasten the maturity of infested fruits. The adult emerges from the pupae also and feeds on the developing seed and this may hasten the maturity of infested fruits. The adults hibernate in between the crevices on the tree trunks. The weevil attacks only mangoes. The dark brownish stout weevil measures about 6mm long. The female scoops out the surface of the developingfruit and deposits the egg singly. On a fruit 12 to 36 eggs may be deposited. The fluid that oozes from the fruit covers the eggs. The incubation period is 7 days. The grub is apodous, fleshly, light yellow with a dark head and pupates inside the nut itself. It emerges as an adult in 7 days. The total life cycle from eggs to adult is 50.
Comments
How to handle a mango could be a required text for novices.
S.
On second thought maybe ill just stick to some processed junk food.
After a few minutes this cute little weevil emerged :)
nothing came out of my mango but it did have black on the seed and i already ate some after cutting off the black parts....