Laboratory rearing and some biological characters of the red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Col., Dryophthoridae) on semi-artificial diet

POURJAVAD, N.; GOLDANSAZ, S. H.; AVAND FAGHIH, A.; KHARAZI PAKDEL, A.

Laboratory rearing and some biological characters of the red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Col., Dryophthoridae) on semi-artificial diet

Document Type : Agricultural Entomology

Authors

Abstract

One of the most important pests of palms is the red palm weevil, RPW, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier). It can cause the death of the trees. In the laboratory, we reared RPW, on semi-artificial diet for several generations. The adult fed, oviposition period and first larval fed occurred on freshly sugarcane stems.The second larval stage transferred on semi-artificial diet through to pupation. Weight of food consumption, duration and weight of each developmental stage were determined. Duration of the life cycle for males and females were 60.00 ±5.37 and 86.41 ± 16.5 days, respectively. The average egg production per female was 87.33±16.50, and the greatest number of eggs was laid during the 12-21 days old, and then declined. The percentage of hatching eggs was 76.71±10.18. In our study, the weight of laboratory adults were less than the adult's weight collected from field

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