Apate monachus Fabricius, 1775

Bustillo, Alex, 2015, Part II. Pests, Compendium of Coffee Diseases and Pests, United States of America: The American Phytopathological Society, pp. 45-60 : 58

Apate monachus Fabricius ( Coleoptera : Bostrichidae )

is a serious pest in Africa, where it lives on forest trees, completing its life cycle. It is a pest of oil palms that sometimes flies onto coffee plantations and bores tunnels about 20 cm long upwards into a main stem. The adult is bright brown and about 2 cm long. It has rounded angles on the elytra, a well-marked and rounded thorax, and a head concealed below the thorax. The larva, which is not found on coffee plants, is white with small legs and has a massive body that is almost cylindrical but thicker at the anterior end.

Damage

Damage is caused by the adults, which are very active and strong fliers. They bore into coffee stems, producing large tunnels that may cause the death of the branch or the tree. They rest on coffee trees during the night. In the morning, they move to the warm sunny side of the trunk, and the entrance holes are always found on this side. Their presence is revealed by a fine dust, which accumulates at the base of the tree.

Population Management

Management of A. monachus populations is only possible by cultural practices, such as cleaning plantations by burning all dead wood that may contain insect stages, destroying infested coffee and other trees, and hand collecting the adults in the early morning. Another control practice is to push a springy wire into the hole; if sawdust-like frass stops coming out of the tunnel entrance after a few days, the beetle has been killed. Alternatively, a plug of cotton wool soaked in an insecticide solution can be pushed up into the tunnel.