Abstract
Red Palm Weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olivier (RPW), is the most deleterious pest of date palm Phoenix dactylifera, spreading rapidly in date palm growing countries around the globe. To facilitate behavioral and biological studies on this important pest, a study to optimize rearing procedures was conducted at King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. RPW pairs were introduced into date palm bolts and subsequent RPW populations were harvested at the pupal stage. The populations of RPW resulting from different numbers of introduced RPW pairs and the use of mated vs. virgin RPW pairs were compared for different date palm cultivars and sizes of the bolts. Results indicated that RPW can successfully be reared on date palm bolts. Subsequent population was increased with increases in numbers of introduced RPW pairs. Date palm cultivars significantly influenced the subsequent RPW population. Thickness of the date palm bolt wase positively correlated with the subsequent RPW population. Introducing mated vs. virgin RPW pairs did not show any significant effect on subsequent RPW population.