Epidemiology of the coconut palm weevil as a vector of red ring disease in African palm plantations

Abstract

The disease of the red ring, caused by the nematode Bursaphelenchus (Rhadinaphelenchus) cocophilus and transmitted by the American palm weevil, Rhynchophorus palmarum, has been considered the most important disease of the coconut palm and oil palm in tropical America, and it is still common today in some plantations. The progress of symptoms can be very rapid (acute form), and the affected palm can die within a few months after the first symptoms appear (progressive yellowing and drying of the leaves starting with the oldest). At the other end of a continuum of symptoms, the younger leaves emerge short and with various types of malformations, but the plants may not die in several years (chronic form). The main aims of this research are to analyze the population dynamics of the coconut palm weevil (Rhynchophorus palmarum) as a vector of the red ring disease caused by the nematode (Bursaphelenchus cocophilus) in plantations of African Palm Oils (Elaeis guianensis), located in the municipality of Kukra Hill. Using two types of traps for the collection of adults of R. palmarum and surgery for the extraction of its larval phase, this combined with the Baerman funnel and the map of critical levels of the incidence of this coleopter allowed to perform the epidemiological analysis of the presence of Red Ring disease caused by R. cocophilus. There are no statistical or material tests (isolation of the nematode or presence of diseased plants) that indicate its presence in the African palm plantations in Kukra Hill. More studies should be done longer and with more repetitions for the corroboration and / or change of the findings of this work.