Dactylosternum abdominale(F.) (Coleoptera: Hydrophilidae): A predator of the banana weevil

Abstract

The efficacy of predators of the banana weevil was investigated under laboratory and field cage conditions for the different breeding sites of the pest viz. the growing banana sucker and the spent pseudostem and residual rhizome of the sucker after the harvest of the bunch. The indigenous Dactylosternum abdominale (Hydrophilidae) reduced weevil multiplication in suckers by up to 50% and in residual stumps of harvested suckers by 39%. In spent pseudostems D. abdominale reduced the multiplication by 40–90% at different predator population densities while Thyreocephalus interocularis (Staphylinidae) reduced it by 42%. Other predators were unimportant.