New Guinea sugarcane weevil damage to coconut

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Roland Quitugua delivered two damaged coconut crowns he had cut from trees in [village?] to UOG for diagnosis on 26 Feb 2008. Aubrey Moore, UOG entomologist, and George Wall, UOG plant pathologist examined the crowns agreed that the damage was caused by New Guinea sugarcane weevil, Rhabdoscelus obscurus (Boisduval). Seven adults and 2 grubs of this species were found along with numerous tunnels in the stem and petioles, and holes in leaves. New Guinea sugarcane weevil is mainly a pest of ornamental palms and betelnut on Guam. However, it occasionally causes severe damage to coconut palms.

Drs. Reddy and Muniappan at the University of Guam have been investigating a commercially available aggregation pheromone for monitoring and control of this pest.

References

  • Muniappan, R., J. Bamba, Junard Cruz, and G. V. P. Reddy. 2004. Field response of Guam population of the new Guinea sugarcane weevil, Rhabdoscelus obscurus (Boisduval) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), to aggregation pheromones and food volatiles. Micronesica 37 (1):57–68.
  • Reddy, G. V. P., Z. T. Cruz, and R. Muniappan. 2005. Development of a semiochemical-based trapping method for the new Guinea sugarcane weevil, Rhabdoscelus obscurus in Guam. Journal of Applied Entomology 129 (2):65–69.
  • Schreiner, I. 1990. Fact Sheet: Rhabdoscelus obscurus PDF