Besides coconut (Cocos nucifera), R. indica is present in betel palm (Areca catechu), date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) and hurricane palm (Dictyosperma album). It was also reported in the families Pandanaceae, Musaceae, Fabaceae, Zingiberaceae, Marantaceae, Cycadaceae, Myrtaceae, Heliconiaceae, Zamiaceae, Lamiaceae and Strelitziaceae.

• Fronds start yellowing gradually upon weevil attack.
• New leaves are damaged and with time the leaves dry off and drop.
• Necrosis occurs in the flowers.
• Heavily-infested plant tissues produce strong odours
• Female weevils create holes in the plant tissues using their rostrum and lay eggs inside [9].

Excision of fronds near the base on the affected palms helps in observing the tunneling, presence of either larvae, pupae or adults. The palms can also be inspected by splitting from the crown to the start of the trunk to expose tunneling. However, this method is only recommended if the probability of pest attack is high. This method will enable the detection of larvae and pupae way before the adults are trapped using baits [15].

Rhynchophorus palmarum eggs, white with rounded ends.

Among the methods which reduce infestations:

• Remove and destroy palms infected by red-ring disease [16].
• Destroy the damaged palms by chemical killing and drying [2, 17, 18].
• In Brazil (Bahia), the use of the tachinid parasitoid Paratheresia menezesi; has been proposed as a way to reduce populations of R. palmarum [19].
• Monitoring of adult weevils using (i) odour-baited traps, i.e. rotting plant materials of palm, pineapple or sugarcane [2, 20, 21, 22], (ii) Yellow traps [23], (iii) aggregation pheromones (main compound, rhynchophorol (4S,2E)-6-methyl-2-hepten-4-ol and minor compound, ferrugineol (4S,5S)-4-methyl-5-nonanol [24] to attract the weevils.
• Killing of adult weevils with organophosphate insecticides (e.g. trichlorfon and pirimifos-ethyl) [20].