Pacific Pests, Pathogens & Weeds - Mini Fact Sheet EditionTaro Papuana beetle (030)
Pacific Pests, Pathogens & Weeds - Mini Fact Sheet EditionTaro Papuana beetle (030)
Summary
- Narrow distribution. Indonesia, Oceania. On taro, seedlings of oil palm and coconut, giant taro, banana, giant swamp taro, sugarcane, Pandanus. An important pest.
- Adult beetles do the damage by boring into the corm. Males are first to arrive awaiting females. After mating, females leave to lay eggs in organic matter.
- Worse where forest disturbed by logging or cyclones.
- Cultural control: destruction of breeding sites suggested, but difficult to find; alternatively, grow a legume cover crops, e.g., Mucuna, Pueraria, Glycine, slash (or use herbicide) to kill it, and then plant taro into the mulch.
- Chemical control: imidacloprid or the pyrethroid cypermethrin at planting, and 3 months.
Common Name
Taro beetle, Papuana beetle
Scientific Name
Papuana species. There are 18 species in Papua New Guinea, 11 of which damage taro; common species are: Papuana woodlarkiana, Papuana huebneri, Papuana trinodosa, Papuana biroi, Eucopidocaulus tridentipes and Papuana szentivanyi.
AUTHORS Helen Tsatsia & Grahame Jackson
Photo 2 Graham Teakle, Canberra. Photo 3 Sada N Lala Taro beetle management in Papua New Guinea and Fiji. Secretariat of the Pacific Community.
Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project PC/2010/090: Strengthening integrated crop management research in the Pacific Islands in support of sustainable intensification of high-value crop production, implemented by the University of Queensland and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.
This mini fact sheet is a part of the app Pacific Pests, Pathogens & Weeds
The mobile application is available from the Google Play Store and Apple iTunes.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved.