Ornamental palms are an economically important component of international trade yet have recently experienced yield losses in Mexico due to red ring and bud rot diseases, which are spread by Rhynchophorus palmarum L. Considering that massive capture is a common strategy to control this pest and the cost of commercial traps and baits could be inaccessible for small farmers, an inexpensive trap-bait combination is desired. In this study, 16 trap-bait combinations for capturing R. palmarum were assessed in ornamental palm polycultures over the course of 1 year. An expensive yellow bucket trap combined with aggregation pheromone + insecticide + banana was compared with inexpensive, handmade trap-bait combinations. A total of 4712 weevils were collected in all traps, of which 52.7% were male and 47.3% female. The efficacy of the handmade trap made from a colorless polyethylene bottle and baited with banana + pineapple + sugarcane + sugarcane molasses was similar to that of the yellow bucket trap baited with aggregation pheromone + insecticide + banana. These two trap-bait combinations remained effective even when the R. palmarum population significantly decreased during the dry, warm season. The affordable handmade trap baited with food attractants and without insecticides was highly efficient in capturing R. palmarum and therefore represents an effective tool for monitoring weevil populations. As ornamental crops have recently gained greater economic importance in the studied region, the use of a novel and cheap trap-bait combination could offer great benefits to producers and form part of the integrated management of R. palmarum.
Anthropoentomophagic biodiversity of the Zongolica region, Veracruz, Mexico. During two and a half years (2003-2005) we recorded the insect species used as food at Zongolica, Veracruz State, Mexico. Interviews were made among people (200) of this municipality to know which insects they consumed. The total of registered species was 57 (Orthoptera, Hemiptera, Homoptera, Megaloptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera). The Orthoptera was the most frequently ingested. Twenty-four of these species were new records for edible insects of Mexico. They are eaten in immature stages or as adults, generally only roasted. Consumption is seasonal. Some species are commercialized in the "tianguis" (little town markets) and/or in the larger Zongolica market. There is a "protoculture" of three species, one cockroach (Periplaneta australasiae Fabricius) and two moths (Latebraria amphipyroides Guenée and Arsenura armida armida Cramer). In Zongolica, anthropoentomophagy is an ancestral habit.
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