Madoka Nakai

The coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB), Oryctes rhinoceros is a major pest of coconut palm, oil palm and other palm species. Palms are damaged when adult beetles bore into the crowns of palms to feed on sap, with severe damage able to kill palms. CRB is believed to have evolved in South East Asia, but was accidentally introduced into Samoa in 1908, where it subsequently spread to other the Pacific Islands and caused widespread damage and death to palms. Arising from an UNDP/SPC CRB control project in the 1960s, the discovery of Oryctes rhinoceros nudivirus (OrNV) coupled with sanitation enabled the successful management of populations in Pacific Island Countries. For over 30 years, no new outbreaks of CRB were reported from uninfested palm growing islands in the Pacific; however, CRB has now been detected for the first time in several Pacific Island locations including: Guam (2007); Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (2009); Oahu, Hawaii (2013); and Honiara, Solomon Islands (2015). A new CRB biotype (CRB- G) was shown to have invaded these areas and results from Guam indicate CRB-G is more resistant to OrNV than the previously invading CRB. In 2017 Tokyo University of Agriculture and Te