444 



FAMILY CURCULIONIDAE 



Fig. 292. 

 The Palm Weevil 



{Rh vncJwpJiorus ferrii- 

 giiiriis, Oliv.). India. 



possible that the insect is a species of CyrtotyacJicliis. The local forest 

 officials should be able to settle this point without much difficulty by col- 

 lecting some infested bamboo shoots towards the latter part of the rains and 

 keeping them until the beetles emerge. 



Rhynchophorus. 

 The genus contains a well-known weevil pest in India. 

 Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, Oliv 



{The Palm Weevil.) 



References. — Oliv. Encycl. Meth. v, 473; Ent. v, 83, p. 79, t. 2, 

 fig. i6rf; Ind. Mtis. Notes, ii, 8. 



Habitat. — India and Ceylon. 



Trees Attacked. — Coco-nut {Cocos niicifera) ; Toddy 

 Palm {Phoenix sylvestris) ; Date Palm (Phoenix dacty- 

 l if era). 



Beetle. — A large, stout, elongate, red- brown, shining weevil, 

 furnished with an elongate proboscis, longer in female than in male, 

 on which the elbowed antennae are set 

 Description. on the basal half; tlie thorax is convex, 



sniootli, with live Ijlack spots, narrowed in 

 front, with curved sides and truncate base ; the scutellum is large 

 triangular ; the elytra small, truncate at base, leaving exposed a large broad pygidium longi- 

 tudinally striate-punctate. Length, 33 mm. to 34 mm. (See figs. 264, 292). 



Larva. — White, fleshy, legless, the body thickest across the middle, corrugated, bluntly 

 tapering posteriorly. The thoracic segments scarcely wider than 

 the head, which is brown. Length, 36 mm. (fig. 265). 



Cocoon. — The cocoon is blunt -elliptical, strongly made of 

 twisted-up palm fibres. It varies in size, but is roughly about 



50 mm. long by 22 mm. broad (fig. 293). 



Pupa. — Elongate, whitish yellow, of the characteristic curcu- 

 lionid type (fig. 265). 



The life history of this weevil is well known 

 throughout the area of its distri- 

 Life History. bution and depredations in the 



East. In India it is a serious pest 

 wherever the coco-nut and toddy palms are grown, 

 whether in Bombay, Bengal and Assam, Madras or 

 Burma. The beetle lays its eggs on the tree near 

 the base of the sheaths of the leaves, searching for 

 abrasions and wounds made on the tree during storms 

 or by other insects such as the rhinoceros beetle 

 {Oyyctes, p. 87), or, perhaps the most fruitful source 

 of injury, because the commonest, at the cuts and 

 wounds made on the tree when collecting the nuts or, in the case of 



Fig. 293. 



Cocoon of the Palm 



Weevil. 



