ORIGINAL PAPER Identification of pests and assessment of their damage on Carapa procera and Lophira lanceolata in Burkina Faso, West Africa Baslayi Tindano 1 • Olivier Gnankine 1 • Amade ´ Oue ´draogo 2 • Mamadou Traore 3 • Jørgen Axelsen 4 • Anne Mette Lykke 4 Received: 28 October 2015 / Accepted: 1 February 2016 Ó Northeast Forestry University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016 Abstract Nontimber forest products are a source of income for women in rural African communities. However, these products are frequently damaged by insect pests. The present study investigates the diversity and damage rates of insect pests that attack Carapa procera seeds and Lophira lanceolata fruits. The experiment was set up in western Burkina Faso and, for C. carapa, consisted of pests col- lected from seeds that had fallen to the ground and from stockpiled seeds. For L. lanceolata, pests were collected from fruits on the trees, and on the ground. The collected samples were sent to the laboratory to estimate the pro- portion of damaged seeds/fruits and rear the insects. The results showed that Ephestia spp., Tribolium castaneum, Oryzeaphilus spp., and Tenebroides mauritanicus were the pests of Carapa procera seeds and Lophira lanceolata fruits. Ephestia spp. was recorded as the main pest of both C. procera and L. lanceolata, whereas T. castaneum was only detected from seeds of L. lanceolata. For C. procera, the stocks were the most infested (29 %) by Ephestia spp. The infestation rate of fruits of L. lanceolata by Ephestia spp. on trees (31.42 ± 3.75 %) was less than the rate of fruits by T. castaneum on the ground (44.00 ± 3.5 %). The different body sizes of Ephestia spp. may indicate the occurrence of two putative species, one from C. procera and another one from L. lanceolata. This work provides important information that could contribute to the setting up of a local-scale sustainable management framework for oil tree pests in Burkina Faso and surrounding countries. Keywords Insect diversity Á Carapa procera Á Lophira lanceolata Á Ephestia spp. Á Pest management Introduction In sub-Saharan Africa, nontimber forest products are used for household consumption and income generation in rural communities, notably for women, with products of many Project founding: This work was supported by Danida (10-002AU) within the framework of the collaborative research project QualiTree. The online version is available at http://www.springerlink.com Corresponding editor: Chai Ruihai & Olivier Gnankine olignankine@gmail.com Baslayi Tindano dapoason@gmail.com Amade ´ Oue ´draogo amadeouedraogo@gmail.com Mamadou Traore tramadalbela@yahoo.fr Jørgen Axelsen jaa@bios.au.dk Anne Mette Lykke aml@bios.au.dk 1 Unite ´ de Formation et de Recherche en Sciences de la vie et de la Terre, Laboratoire d’Entomologie Fondamentale et Applique ´e, Universite ´ de Ouagadougou, 03 BP 7021 Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso 2 Unite ´ de Formation et de Recherche en Sciences de la vie et de la Terre, Laboratoire de Biologie et Ecologie Ve ´ge ´tales, Universite ´ de Ouagadougou, 03 BP 7021 Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso 3 INERA, Institut de l’Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles, 01 BP 476 Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso 4 Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark 123 J. For. Res. DOI 10.1007/s11676-016-0303-5