The primary food source for the weevil is stressed or damaged Cabbage Palms although it will infest Saw Palmettos and occasionally Canary Island Date Palms, Washington Palms, Royal Palms, and some Coconut Palms.
The Palmetto Weevil has a complete life cycle: with an egg, several larval instars, prepupal, pupal, and adult stages. Eggs are laid in the bases of leaves or in wounds in a dying host palm tree. Eggs hatch in about three days and begin feeding on palm tissue. As they molt the larvae have an increasingly large appetite and tend to feed primarily in the soft tissue surrounding the apical meristem of the host palm. The mature grubs migrate to the petioles of the tree and prepare a cocoon from palm fibers. After surrounding themselves with a cocoon, the larvae enter a prepupal stage, then a pupal stage. After a few weeks an adult emerges from the pupal case and may immediately break free of the cocoon or wait within the cocoon for several days before emerging. The entire life cycle, from egg to adult, takes about 84 days.
Fossil records suggest that the Palmetto Weevil was present in Florida during the Pleistocene about 1 million years ago.
Jeremy Brooks, Troy Helms, & Josh Williams ENT 301; Fall 2001
