![]() Use a hooked wire inserted into the tunnel to remove the beetle. Look for tunnels in the crown of coconut palms with frass - often more than one per palm. ![]() Look for large jet-black beetles up to 40 mm long with prominent horns. In Asia and parts of Papua New Guinea, Oryctes attack encourages invasion by Rhynchophorus sp. Using the relationship between damage and yield calculated elsewhere, work in Samoa showed that a 25% reduction in leaf area resulted in a 25% reduction in nut yield. One way is to prune leaves to simulate beetle attack and compare nut yields on healthy palms. It is difficult to relate damage to lost production. Occasionally, the beetles bore through the midribs of fronds, which snap in the wind. The damage caused by the beetle results in loss of leaf area, flowers dying, early nut fall and, ultimately, lower yields. Spread is on the wing, they are stronger flyers, and aboard ships and aircraft. They do not eat the frass from the tunnels instead, they drink the sap that comes from tunneling. The beetles are nocturnal, flying to the tops of coconuts where they use their mandibles, horn and strong forelegs to tunnel into the crowns. Females live about 9 months, and lay about 50 eggs males live about 5 months. They are black with horns - those of the female often shorter than the male (Photos 9-12). The two pupal stages last 25-40 days.Īdults remain in the ground for 2-3 weeks and then chew their way out. The last stage makes a hollow where it feeds, lining it with liquid faecal material, and then pupates. There are three stages lasting 80 to 200 days (depending on quality of the diet), with the third stage up to 100 mm long and 20 mm diameter. The C-shaped larvae or grubs are white then creamy with brown heads (Photo 8). Logs and stumps of many other kinds of trees are also hosts (Photo 7). Oval eggs (3.5 x 4 mm) are laid one at a time, 5-15 cm, below the surface of moist organic materials, such as sawdust, manure, compost and garbage heaps, or above ground in tunnels, debris in axils of coconut fronds, in still-standing but dead and rotten coconut palms, and in the rotten ends of fallen coconut trunks (Photo 6). Holes in the base of the fronds may be obvious when beetle populations are high (Photo 5). When the leaves unfold the damage is seen as V or wedge-shaped areas missing from the leaflets (Photos 1-4). The adult beetle does the damage, boring into the crown of coconut palms, cutting across young fronds and flowers. Banana, Pandanus, sugarcane and tree fern are also hosts. HostsĬoconut is the most important host, but other palm species are attacked, including betel nut, sago palm and oil palm. South and Southeast Asia, Oceania. American Samoa, Fiji, Hawaii, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Wallis & Futuna. Recently, the beetle has spread to Guam, Hawaii, mainland Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu (under eradicatiion). An artifical breeding site inoculated with spores of Metarhizium anisopliae, in order to infect larvae of the rhinoceros beetle, Oryctes rhinoceros (Fiji). The Secretariat of Pacific Community is providing specialist technical advice on measures to eradicate the pest including the possible use of biological control that has been successfully used in Fiji. ![]() The damage caused by these coconut rhinoceros beetles mean that it is an imminent threat to our livelihood as well as rural economies that rely on coconut production for income. The beetle feeds on sap of coconut palms and causes significant damage when larvae of the beetle bore into the crowns of the coconut trees, burrowing as deep as 50 cm (19.7 in) into the host tissue, resulting in destruction of unopened leaves and even palm death. The CRB-S strain is generally susceptible to a biological control virus that is specific for this beetle and this possible control measure will be included in response strategy considerations. Specimens of the beetle recently detected at Magaliliu village in Vanuatu were sent to New Zealand Plant Health and Environment Laboratory where they were confirmed to be CRB-S (Pacific strain). There are two recognised strains of CRB: CRB-S type and CRB- G type.ĬRB-S is the strain that typically occurs in the Pacific.ĬRB-G is a new strain of coconut rhinoceros beetle first identified in Guam in the Pacific region in 2007 that has since spread to Papua New Guinea in 2009, Hawaii and Palau in 2014 and the Solomon Islands in 2015. ![]() In the Pacific region, the coconut rhinoceros beetle is known to occur in American Samoa, Fiji, Guam, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Wallis & Futuna. It is native to western Europe and Scandinavia but has spread into Africa, Asia and the Pacific islands. The surveillance is to determine the extent of invasion of the coconut rhinoceros beetle that was first found on 20 May,2019.īiosecurity Vanuatu confirmed that the coconut rhinoceros beetle is a pest of coconut and palm trees. ![]()
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