New Horizons in Insect Science Towards Sustainable Pest Management

Status and Management of Three Major Insect Pests of Coconut in the Tropics and Subtropics 365

Pheromone

The successful integrated pest management (IPM)
tactics for the management of RPW is the use of
pheromone traps. It can be used as pest-monitor-
ing and large-scale mass-trapping program. The
RPW male produced aggregation pheromone
“rhynchophorol” identified as (2E)-6-methyl
− 2-hepten − 4-ol for Rhynchophorus palmarum
by Rochat et al. (1991). Subsequently, Hallett
et al. ( 1993 ) identified and synthesized the “ferru-
gineol” (4-methyl − 5-nonanol) by another male-
produced aggregation pheromone. From that
time, the pheromone technology has been widely
used to manage both R. palmarum in oil palm
and R. ferrugineus on coconut and date palm. Sri
Lankan researchers, while studying the electroan-
tennogram (EAG) response of male and female
adults to 16 terpenes, reported that R. ferrugineus
was sensitive to the size and the position of oxy-
gen function, degree of unsaturation and degree
of olefinic bonds in the molecules (Gunawardena
1994). Further, workers from the same labora-
tory reported the synthesis of ferrugineol by using
Grignard reaction with butyl magnesium bromide

and 2-methyl − 1-pentanal. The activity of ferru-

gineol could be enhanced by combining it with

n-pentanol, which is a major constituent of coco-

nut sap, while decanol elicited the lowest EAG re-

sponse (Gunawardena and Bandarage 1995a, b).

In 1994, the first pheromone trap evaluation

started to monitor the RPW in the Middle East. The

male-produced aggregation pheromones, chemi-

cally known as ferruginol (4-methyl − 5-nonanol

and 2. 4-methyl − 5-nonunion), were available in

various kinds of traps. In Saudi Arabia, inverted-

bucket and upright-bucket traps are commonly

used. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), fabri-

cated plastic traps are used while in India and Sri

Lanka, bucket traps are mostly used (Faleiro 2006 ;

Faleiro et al. 1998 ). The fundamental trap design is

to have several windows in a container that allows

the RPW to enter. The outside of the container is

usually made rough by wrapping it with rough

material. The RPW is lured by the pheromone and

palm stems, leaf petiole pieces, pineapple pieces;

fermented sugar solution or toddy are used syn-

ergistically to attract weevils. Insecticides or soap

solutions are used as bait in the traps.

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