1-EVALUATION OF THREE TRAPPING STRATEGIES.cdr

Rhynchophorus spp. weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) are destructive palm pests in their native and introduced ranges (Giblin-Davis et al., 2013). The palm weevil, R. vulneratus (Panzer), is native to southern Thailand-northern Malaysia on the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Singapore, and Indonesia (Wattanapongsiri 1966, Rugman-Jones et al., 2013). In Aug. and Sep. 2010, larval and adult R. vulneratus were recovered from badly damaged Canary Islands date palms, Phoenix canariensis Chabaud (Arecales: Arecaceae), in Laguna Beach California USA (Hoddle, 2010a). In response to this find, a delineation, containment, and eradication program targeting R. vulneratus was initiated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). A core component to this program was the deployment of 3.78 liter bucket traps loaded with commercially-available aggregation pheromone, a synergist (i.e. ethyl acetate) and baited with fermenting fruit (e.g. apples). Approximately 1 liter of 50:50 mixture of water and propylene glycol was added to bucket traps to drown and preserve weevils (Hoddle, 2010b). The 2 area infested with R. vulneratus was estimated to be ~ 1 km , or about 4% of the land area of the City of Laguna Beach. 2 A total of 150 pheromone traps were deployed over a 15.6 km survey area which was ~ 68% of the total land area of Laguna Beach. Despite the deployment of a relatively large number of traps in areas with palm trees with confirmed R. vulneratus infestations, only 1 adult weevil was captured over a 3 yr period (Hoddle et al., 2015). The very low capture rates of R. vulneratus in pheromone traps in areas with apparent or suspected weevil infestations caused serious concern because it suggested that the pheromone traps might not be very attractive to R. vulneratus. If this was the case, then the lack of a sensitive and species-specific monitoring tool could significantly impair efforts to contain and eradicate R. vulneratus in California. To determine whether or not the commercially-available aggregation pheromone used for monitoring R. vulneratus in California was attractive to this palm pest, and if volatiles from cut palm logs act synergistically with aggregation pheromone to increase attraction (Hallett et al., 1993), field trials evaluating the pheromone alone and in combination with logs of cut coconut palm trunk (Cocos nucifera L. ABSTRACT ARTICLE INFORMATION