How Far Can the Palm Weevil, Rhynchophorus vulneratus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), Fly?

The palm weevil, Rhynchophorus vulneratus, is native to Southeast Asia and was recovered from an infested Canary Islands date palm in Laguna Beach, California, USA, in 2010. The detection of this potentially destructive palm pest initiated a detection, containment, and eradication program that was reliant, in part, on the deployment of bucket traps loaded with aggregation pheromone and baited with fermenting fruit. A key question that pertained to the deployment of traps was “how far can R. vulneratus fly?” This question could not be answered and in response to this knowledge deficit, computerized flight mill studies were conducted with field-captured R. vulneratus in an outdoor screen house in Sumatra, Indonesia. Of the 63 weevils tethered to flight mills, ∼27% failed to fly >1 km in 24 h and were excluded from analyses. In total, 46 weevils (35 females and 11 males) flew >1 km on flight mills and of these adults, the average total distance flown in 24 h was significantly greater for females (∼32 km) when compared with males (∼15 km). A small proportion of females (∼16%) flew 50-80 km, and one female flew 100.1 km in 24 h. Flying weevils exhibited an average weight loss of ∼13–17% and non-flying control weevils (n=27) lost 10–13% body weight in 24 h. The distribution of flight distances for female and male weevils combined was leptokurtic, which suggests that faster than expected spread by R. vulneratus may be possible in invaded areas.