How Far Can the Red Palm Weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) Fly?: Computerized Flight Mill Studies With Field-Captured Weevils

Hoddle, Mark S.; Hoddle, Christina D.; Faleiro, J. R.; El-Shafie, Hamadttu A. F.; Jeske, Daniel R.; Sallam, A. A.

doi:10.1093/jee/tov240

Cited by 43 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…The flight-mill speeds measured here were somewhat lower than flight speeds measured on a much larger sample size (N = 56) using a similar flight-mill (2.15 ms -1 ; Barkan et al in review). They were also similar and 83% higher than two previous studies on female red palm weevils flying in different flight-mills (1.79 ms -1 in the summer [3] and 1.01 ms -1 [1]). Hence, the resistance of our flight-mill is not higher than that of flight-mills used in the past to study the same insects.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

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The aerodynamics of flight in an insect flight-mill

2017

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Predicting the dispersal of pest insects is important for pest management schemes. Flight-mills provide a simple way to evaluate the flight potential of insects, but there are several complications in relating tethered-flight to natural flight. We used high-speed video to evaluate the effect of flight-mill design on flight of the red palm weevil (Rynchophorous ferruginneus) in four variants of a flight-mill. Two variants had the rotating radial arm pivoted on the main shaft of the rotation axis, allowing freedom to elevate the arm as the insect applied lift force. Two other variants had the pivot point fixed, restricting the radial arm to horizontal motion. Beetles were tethered with their lateral axis horizontal or rotated by 40°, as in a banked turn. Flight-mill type did not affect flight speed or wing-beat frequency, but did affect flapping kinematics. The wingtip internal to the circular trajectory was always moved faster relative to air, suggesting that the beetles were attempting to steer in the opposite direction to the curved trajectory forced by the flight-mill. However, banked beetles had lower flapping asymmetry, generated higher lift forces and lost more of their body mass per time and distance flown during prolonged flight compared to beetles flying level. The results indicate, that flapping asymmetry and low lift can be rectified by tethering the beetle in a banked orientation, but the flight still does not correspond directly to free-flight. This should be recognized and taken into account when designing flight-mills and interoperating their data.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…The red palm weevil ( Rhynchophorus ferrugineus ) is a competent flyer that readily makes prolonged flights in flight mills [1,3]. While attempts have been made to estimate dispersal flight distances from flight-mill studies, the relationship between flight-mill flight and free-flight is yet to be evaluated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The aerodynamics of flight in an insect flight-mill

2017

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“…Weevils retaining the full conidial load and being infected by the fungal strain are expected to have an overall reduction in progeny of 78%, which clearly accounts for the infestation reduction in the sentinel palms. As R. ferrugineus is able to easily move distances of >100 m in a single flight and >1 km in a flight mill, with some weevils flying distances >50 km in 24 h, the separation between our plots (200 m) may have been insufficient to preclude this cross‐contamination. Based on the R. ferrugineus flight capacities, optimal results from placing infective traps could be accomplished when applied to wide areas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of an attract‐and‐infect system to control Rhynchophorus ferrugineus with the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana

Dembilio

Moya

Vacas

et al. 2018

Pest Management Science

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“…1). R. ferrugineus population is highly aggregated in nature which results in infestations occurring in clusters (Faleiro 2006), often by invading adults that fl y short distances (Ávalos et al, 2014;Hoddle et al, 2015) which could also play a role in the aggregation of this pest. Prevailing climatic conditions infl uence weevil activity.…”

Section: Host Range and Symptoms Of Infestationmentioning

confidence: 99%