Contamination of the Palm Weevil (Rhynchophorus Palmarum) With the Red Ring Nematode (Rhadinaphelenchus Cocophilus) in Surinam

Abstract

Coconut palm, oil palm and the wild palms Mauritia flexuosa and Maximiliana maripa were inoculated with Rhadinaphelenchus cocophilus. Only in succulent and vigorously growing palms did the disease become lethal. In less vigorously growing ones, little-leaf symptoms occurred in association with R. cocophilus. The red ring nematode as well as its vector can breed in recently felled trunks of cultivated and wild palms, resulting in a high percentage of palm weevils contaminated with R. cocophilus in the absence of red ring disease.