Invasion of beetles
Since several weeks we observe large amounts of dead red-brown beetles in our property
Friday, 08 January 2016 | Nature
The beetle has a size of ca. 3 cm and a red-brown colour. According to a local biologist , Nuno Marques how lives on the Ilha da Armona, it is a red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, a species of snout beetle also known as the Asian palm weevil or sago palm weevil.
The vermin has been imported together with palm trees from North Africa into Spain, France, Italy and Greece and from there rapidly spread over the entire Mediterranean area. Weevil larvae can excavate holes in the trunk of a palm trees up to a metre long, thereby weakening and eventually killing the host plant. The weevil is considered a major pest in palm plantations, including the coconut palm, date palm and oil palm.
Like other plagues the larvae wait for a bio signal, most likely the first rains of winter, to turn into beetles (adult form) to reproduce and die, all at once in huge amounts.