MASS REARING TECHNIQUE FOR MANGO PULP WEEVIL, Sternochetus frigidus (Fabr.) (COLEOPTERA: CURCULIONIDAE)

A mass rearing technique for mango pulp weevils (MPW) was developed in Brooke’s Point, Palawan that ensured the supply of test insects at different stages of development for irradiation trials. The mass rearing technique synchronized chicken-egg-size mango host fruits (65 days after flower induction) enclosed in nylon bags, grown on trees with the release of male and gravid female weevils inside the nylon bags for oviposition. This technique produced a mean number of 90.3+16.2 larvae (5 th instar) grown from 100 pieces ‘carabao’ mango fruits. A mean number of 63.0+22.5 and 180.3+21.4 of pupae and adult MPW respectively, were produced from 100 pieces ‘carabao’ mango fruits in separate trials.