Morphological genetic and biological studies of red palm weevil, rhynchophorus spp. (coleoptera: curculiondae) in Terengganu, Malaysia

Abstract

The Red Palm Weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) is the most important pest of various palm species including coconut, date and oil palm in the world. Rhynchophorus ferrugineus is a lethal pest of coconut in Terengganu and sago palm in Sarawak, Malaysia. This study was intended to investigate the morphological, genetic and biological studies of red palm weevil (RPW) which include of two Rhynchophorus morphospecies – R. ferrugineus and R. vulneratus in Malaysia.

For morphological aspect, body length dan rostrum length of R. ferrugineus female were significantly longer than males (p < 0.05). However, the elytra length, lengths of foreleg, mid leg, hind leg and antennae length of R. vulneratus males were significantly longer than females. Overall, all measurement of morphological characters R. vulneratus males and females were significantly larger than R. ferrugineus adults (p < 0.05). Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis showed no differences on certain microstructures between two Rhynchophorus morphospecies.