One of the most common palm pests is the red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olivier. Five artificial
diets were evaluated to rear RPW, and to facilitate its behavioral and biological studies. The developmental of R.
ferruginus was studied on the tested artificial diets based on primarily composed of sugarcane stem pieces (1st
diet; control), sweet pumpkin (2nd diet), ground sugarcane + sweet pumpkin (3rd diet), sweet potato (4th diet) and
ground sugarcane + sweet potato (5th diet) under rearing room (28 ± 1 °C and 75 ± 5 RH%) at Faculty of Agriculture
in Benha district. The biological aspects, pre-oviposition, oviposition, larval & pupal durations, the longevity of
male and female adults and the generation period of R. ferrugineus have all been estimated. Moreover, the impact of
these artificial diets on the quantities of total proteins, carbohydrates and lipids were determined in the full-grown
larvae. Obtained results showed that the insect manifested the shortest larval and pupal periods and the longest
longevity for males and females when rearing of R. ferruginus took place on an artificial diet based on sweet potato
as a successful and economical for mass rearing of the red palm weevil under laboratory conditions. Larvae fed
on diet 4 (sweet potato) was exhibited the shortest duration (114.80 days), while 1st diet (Sugarcane stem pieces)
was recorded the longest period (125.00 ± days). Similarly for pupation and both male and female longevity, the
shortest periods resulted from larvae feeding on 4th diet (14.65, 49.40 and 48.0 days, respectively). Contrariwise, the
longest pupal period was reported with 5th diet (15.70 days). The highest of eggs hatchability % (96.53%) resulted
from the rearing nof R. ferruginus larvae on the 4th diet. Chemical analyses of the full-grown larva were indicated
that the highest contents of total carbohydrates (45.57 µg/g), lipids (28.46 µg/g) and proteins (20.01µg/g) were
obtained in case of larvae reared on 1st and 4th diets, respectively. Consequently, the development of R. ferruginus
stages was slightly lower on both 1st and 4th artificial diets. So that, both of them were a successful and economic
artificial diet for RPW development under laboratory conditions. Therefore, this study added valuable alternative
ingredients to prepare more practical and economical feeding substrate for weevil rearing to help for proposal of
its management and conservation in palm plantations |
