Eggs
On both oil palms and coconuts, O. rhinoceros bores through the petiole bases into the central unopened leaves. This causes tissue maceration and the presence of a fibrous frass inside the feeding hole is an indication of its activity within (Catley, 1969). The adults may be forced out by 'winkling' with a hooked barbed wire into the feeding hole. Larval, pupal as well as adult population may be detected and inspected by digging into or breaking open its possible breeding sites its possible breeding grounds.
Related invasive species
- Oryctes rhinoceros
Related Farm Practice
- Wood
- Feeding
- Activity
O. rhinoceros is included in the Global Invasive Species Database (ISSG, 2009).
O. rhinoceros adults feed in the crown region of both coconut and oil palm. On oil palms they bore through petiole bases into the central unopened leaves. This causes tissue maceration and the presence of a fibrous frass inside and at the entrance to the feeding hole is an indication of its activity within (Catley, 1969). A single attack may be followed by others on the same palm (Barlow and Chew, 1970;Young, 1975). These attacks subsequently produce fronds which have wedge-shaped gaps or the characteristic V-shaped cuts to fronds(Wood, 1968a;Sadakathulla and Ramachandran, 1990).
Primarily found attacking coconut and oil palm, O. rhinoceros has also occasionally been recorded on banana (Sharma and Gupta, 1988), sugarcane, papaya, sisal and pineapple (Khoo et al., 1991). In Mauritius, ornamentals such as the royal palm (Roystonea regia), the latanier palm (Livistona chinensis), the talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera) and the raphia palm (Raphia ruffia) are attacked (Bedford, 1980).