Rhynchophorus ferrugineus
| Rhynchophorus ferrugineus | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Family: | Curculionidae |
| Genus: | Rhynchophorus |
| Species: | R. ferrugineus |
| Binomial name | |
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Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier, 1790) |
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| Synonyms | |
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The red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, is a species of snout beetle also known as the Asian palm weevil or sago palm weevil. The adult beetles are relatively large, ranging between two and five centimeters long, and are usually a rusty red colour—but many colour variants exist and have often been classified as different species (e.g., Rhynchophorus vulneratus, which is still in dispute). Weevil larvae can excavate holes in the trunk of a palm trees up to a metre long, thereby weakening and eventually killing the host plant. As a result, the weevil is considered a major pest in palm plantations, including the coconut palm, date palm and oil palm.
Originally from tropical Asia, the red palm weevil has spread to Africa and Europe, reaching the Mediterranean in the 1980s. It was first recorded in Spain in 1994, and in France in 2006. Additional infestations have been located in Malta and Italy (Tuscany, Sicily and Campania). It is also well established throughout most of Portugal, especially in the South. It also has established in Morocco, Tunisia, and other North African countries. The weevil was first reported in the Americas on Curaçao in January 2009 and sighted the same year in Aruba. It was reported in the United States at Laguna Beach, CA late in 2010 but did not become established.
Primarily due to the existence of numerous color forms across its range, the taxonomy and classification of this beetle has undergone a number of changes in understanding and circumscription, and is still in flux. As such, the information in this article should be viewed as a compilation of data which may apply to more than one species, depending on the resolution of the ongoing disputes. In particular, the most recent genus-level revision in 1966 recognized two species, ferrugineus and vulneratus, and for decades these were interpreted as separate taxa. A genetic study in 2004 concluded that vulneratus was not distinct from ferrugineus, and treated them as synonyms, a view that was accepted until 2013, when yet another genetic study came to the opposite conclusion. A consensus view has not yet emerged, but if the latter interpretation holds, then the species that appeared in the US was vulneratus rather than ferrugineus, which is the invading species in all of the other global introductions.
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