Insects Associated with Palmwine from Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) In Alor, Southeastern Nigeria

A study to determine the insects associated with palmwine tapped from oil palm (Elaeis guineensis, Jacq.) was conducted at three villages, namely, Ide, Okebuonye, and Umuokwu, in Alor town, southeastern Nigeria, between Feb. and Mar. 2008. Unsieved palmwine in 10 L containers were collected simultaneously from tappers at the three villages for examination. Fifteen insect species in 12 genera and eight families were recovered. Some were attracted by palmwine odour while others got trapped while foraging or prospecting for nectar, mate, oviposition site, or they accidentally dropped into the collecting gourds. Camponotus maculatus (Fab.) was the most preponderant followed by unidentified dipterous larvae, Mycodrosophilla sp., C. acvapimensis Mayr. Apis mellifera L., Cryptarcha sp., and unidentified lepidopterous larvae. Collections of A. mellifera and lepidopterous larvae were limited to Ide village. Species at low levels of abundance included Carpophilus fumatus (Boh.), C. perrisi (For.), Megaponera foetans (Fab.), Oecophylla longinoda (Latr.), Musca domestica (L.), Forficula senegalensis (Serville), Brachypeplus pilosellus (Murr.), Megalurothrips sp. and Blatella sp. Numerically higher number of insects were collected from Ide (263) compared with Umuokwu (195) or Okebunoye (181) but the differences were due to random variation.