This document discusses several pests that affect coconut plants, including the rhinoceros beetle, red palm weevil, black headed caterpillar, slug caterpillar, white grub, and coconut eriophyid mite. It provides information on the scientific name, symptoms caused, biology like egg laying and life stages, and management methods for each pest.

1. PEST OF COCONUT

2. RHINOCEROS BEETLE
• Scientific Name : Oryctes rhinoceros
• Family : Scarabaeidae
• Order : Coleoptera
• Host range : pine apple, sugar cane , areca
nut, sago , oil palm
3/30/2020 2N.AVINESH

3. SYMPTOMS
• Central spindle appears cut or toppled
• Fully opened fronds showing characteristic
diamond shaped cuttings
• Holes with chewed fibre sticking out at the
base of central spindle
3/30/2020 3N.AVINESH

4. 3/30/2020 N.AVINESH 4

5. BIOLOGY
• EGG: Female lays oval creamy white eggs in
manure pits or decaying vegetable matter at
depth of 5- 15 cm
• EP: 8- 18 days
• GRUB: stout, sluggish, and white with pale
brown , feeds decaying matter 99 to 180 days
• PUPA: pupates in earthen cells emerge as
adult in 10- 25 days
• ADULT : stout, block and has a long horn
projecting dorsally from the head in male.
Horn short in female.

7. MANAGEMENT
• Destroy and dispose of all dead trees
• Apply fungal culture of Metarrhizium
anisopliae
• Encourage reduviid predators Platymeris
laevicollis
• Set light traps to attract adults
3/30/2020 7N.AVINESH

8. RED PALM WEEVIL
• Scientific Name : Rhynchophorus ferrugineus
• Family : curculionidae
• Order : coleoptera
• Distribution : Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil nadu
3/30/2020 8N.AVINESH

9. SYMPTOM
• Holes on the with brownish ooze
• Yellowing of inner leaves and gradual wilting
of central shoot in the crown
3/30/2020 9N.AVINESH

10. 3/30/2020 N.AVINESH 10

11. BIOLOGY
• EGGS: female lays eggs in scooped out small
cavities on palms , lays 276 eggs EP: 2 – 5
days
• GRUB: apodous light yellowish grub , laraval
period 12 -33 days
• ADULT : reddish brown weevil has six spots
on thorax
3/30/2020 11N.AVINESH

12. 3/30/2020 N.AVINESH 12

13. MANAGEMENT
• Avoiding injuries on trunk . Any injury should
be plastered with clay or CEMENT WITH
COPPER OXYCHLORIDE
• Avoid cutting green fronds
• Avoiding incidence of rhinoceros beetle
• Root feeding with monocrotophos @ 10 ml +
10ml water
• Uses aggregation pheromone traps
3/30/2020 13N.AVINESH

14. BLACK HEADED CATERPILLAR
• Scientific name : Opisina arenosella
• Family : cryptophasidae
• Order : Lepidoptera
• Distribution : all over peninsular india
3/30/2020 14N.AVINESH

15. SYMPTOM
• Dried up patches on leaflets of the lower
leaves
• Galleries of silk and frass on underside of
leaflets
3/30/2020 15N.AVINESH

16. BIOLOGY
• EGG: greyish white small eggs , EP: 5 days
• LARVA: caterpillar is greenish brown with
dark brown head and prothorax, reddish
mesothorax. LP: 40 days
• PUPA : it pupates inside the web itself in a
thin silken cocoon
• ADULT: greyish white in colour
3/30/2020 16N.AVINESH

17. MANAGEMENT
• Cutting and burning all the infested leaves
and fronds
• In summer release BETHYLIDS and BRACONID
& EULOPHID parasitoids at 1: 1:10 per tree
• Root feeding with monocrotophos
3/30/2020 17N.AVINESH

18. SLUG CATERPILLAR
• Scientific name : Parasa lepida , Conotheyla
rotunda
• Family : cochlidiidae
• Order : Lepidoptera
• SYMPTOM:
• defoliation , leaving only the midrib and veins
3/30/2020 18N.AVINESH

19. BIOLOGY
• EGG: flat shiny eggs on the under surface of
leaves in batches of 20-30 . EP: 6-7 days
• LARVA: larval periods is about 42 days ,
greenish body with white links
• PUPA : compact brown shell like cocoon,
which is convex above and flat ventrally as
stems
• ADULT: moth has green wings with prominent
dark patches at the base of each forewing
3/30/2020 19N.AVINESH

20. WHITE GRUB
• Scientific name: Leucopholis coneophora
• Family : melolonthidae
• Order : Lepidoptera
• Host range : sweet potato, tapioca , colocasia ,
3/30/2020 20N.AVINESH

21. 3/30/2020 N.AVINESH 21

22. SYMPTOM
• Leaves turn yellow, immature nuts shed ,
flowering delayed
• White grubs exposed when base of the tree is
dug
3/30/2020 22N.AVINESH

23. BIOLOGY
• EGG: female lays eggs in the soil. EP: 20 days
• GRUB : larval period :10-11 months , pupal
period is 9- 12 days , pupation occurs in soil
• ADULT : adult beetle emerge after monsoon
showers
3/30/2020 23N.AVINESH

24. COCONUT ERIOPHYID MITE
• Scientific name : Aceri aguerreronis
• Family : eriophyidae
• Order : acarina
• Distribution :Tamil nadu , Karnataka, AP
3/30/2020 24N.AVINESH

25. SYMPTOMS
• Develops on the meristematic tissues under
the perianth
• Oozing of brown gummy exudation
• Reduced nut size and copra content and
malformation of nuts
• The mite is vermiform
3/30/2020 25N.AVINESH

26. 3/30/2020 N.AVINESH 26

27. BIOLOGY
• Mite is very minute in size
• It is pale in colour with elongate body and
worm like appearance
• Life cycle completed in 10 -12 days
3/30/2020 27N.AVINESH

28. MANAGEMENT
• Root feeding with TNAU agro biocide 30ml /
tree
3/30/2020 28N.AVINESH