Evaluation of Date Palm Cultivars for Rearing the Red Date Palm Weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Development of red date palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) was evaluated on 4 popular cultivars of date palm, viz., ‘Khalas’, ‘Sukkary’, ‘Khasab’, and ‘Sillaj’ for 2 consecutive generations. The weevils reared on ‘Sukkary’ showed significantly better growth expressed in most parameters such as length, width and weight at larval, pupal and adult stages. Significantly greater numbers of eggs were laid on cv. ‘Sukkary’ as compared to the other 3 cultivars. This might be because of higher sugar content of cv. ‘Sukkary’. Adult lifespan was significantly longer on cv. ‘Khasab’. Though more cocoons were harvested from ‘Khalas’, frequency of adult emergence was better on ‘Sukkary’. Male to female ratio was similar on all date palm cultivars.