Crops > Fruits & nuts > Rambutan > Oxycetonia versicolor, Samoa



Crops > Fruits & nuts > Rambutan > Oxycetonia versicolor, Samoa

Crops Fruits & nuts Rambutan Oxycetonia versicolor, Samoa

Oxycetonia versicolor

April 2005. A beetle from Samoa on rambutan. The photo is not clear, and it was asked if there are white markings on the back, if so it could be the flower beetle, Oxycetonia versicolor. It has been found in Samoa associated with the rhinoceros beetle…. “were collected commonly from sawdust, grass compost, and other heaps of organic matter, but only occasionally from under coconut split log traps”.

Reference: Hinckley AD (1967) Associates of the coconut rhinoceros beetle in Western Sama. Pacific Insects 9(3): 505-511.

A member wrote: “I have seen that damage to rambutan every year in Asau during the years I
was in Samoa, but always thought it was a disease problem. The damage was never serious enough though to warrant further investigation (or in those days there were enough rambutans there not worry about a few rotten ones!). Interesting to see that you now have found the culprit”.

Similar beetles were found in the collection at Nu’u to those that occurred on the fruit in the field. But there were differences in the colour patterns on the back, making it uncertain whether there were two species or males and females of the one: “One with all the elytra black with white dots and the other with the margins of each
elytron black but reddish brown inside again with whitish markings scattered over them.”