Effect of humidity and soil type on survival and behavior of red palm weevil rhynchophorus ferruginous (Oliv.)‎ adults

Abstract EN

Experiments were conducted to study the effect of humidity and soil type on the survival and behavior of red palm weevil (RPW) Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Oliv) adults.

Adult survival was highly influenced by the surrounding moisture content.

It was 2.5, 39.5 and 23.5 days when kept in dry peat moss, moist peat moss and tap water, respectively.

Total body water loss was 55.7 and 54.9% for females and males, respectively.

Most water loss occurred in the first two days.

Virgin adults were able to mate in water with 50% of tested females mating successfully.

Adults were able to use moist soil as temporary harborage and penetrated through different moist soils.

The depth of penetration was 12.6, 5.1 and 6.4 cm in moist peat moss, moist sand and moist loam soils, respectively.

Adults were able to perceive soil humidity at different depths and were able to detect moist peat moss at a depth of up to 22 cm.