Elaeidobius kamerunicus Faust (Coleoptera, Curculionidae) is one of the specific pollinators on inflorescences of the African oil palm Elaeis guineensis Jacquin. This derelomine weevil is native to tropical Africa. During the late 20th century, it was introduced into all tropical regions where E. guineensis is grown, in order to improve its pollination and fruit set. Despite an overall success, a decline in pollination efficiency has been documented in several regions. In this study, we reconstructed a multilocus phylogeography of the world populations of E. kamerunicus, in order to explore its genetic diversity in its native and introduced ranges. Our results showed that African populations of E. kamerunicus are forming two differentiated mitochondrial clusters in West and central Africa, forming a contact zone along the Cameroon Volcanic Line. The existence of this sharp contact zone along this weak altitudinal barrier suggests that other parameters, such as climate, may be driving the distribution of populations. A differential genetic structure between mitochondrial and nuclear genes, and the strong level of genetic structure of the mitochondrial gene, also suggest sex-biased dispersal in this species, with males dispersing more than females. The genetic structure inferred from Asian and South American populations suggests that they originate from populations of both western and central tropical Africa and that a bottleneck has probably been experienced by these populations.

The objective of the current experiment was to determine the effects of increasing levels of palm kernel cake in a finishing diet on feed intake, digestibility, performance, ingestive behaviour and carcass traits in zebu bulls. Thirty-two Nellore bulls (420 ± 25.0 kg initial body weight [BW] and 24-months-old), were assigned randomly to individual pens with four treatments (0, 70, 140 and 210 g/kg of palm kernel cake by total dry matter [DM]) and eight replicates per treatment. The inclusion of palm kernel cake linearly decreased DM, crude protein and non-fibrous carbohydrate intake and increased ether extraction intake and digestibility. There was a linear decrease in final BW and hot carcass weight (HCW) associated with palm kernel cake inclusion in the bull diet. However, the gain : feed ratio was similar among the diets. Eating and rumination rates (g DM or neutral detergent fibre/h) were reduced, whereas the total chewing time and idling (min/day) were not affected by palm kernel cake inclusion. There were no effects of palm kernel cake inclusion on most quantitative carcass characteristics and qualitative carcass attributes (subcutaneous fat thickness, longissimus muscle area, colour, texture and marbling). The inclusion of palm kernel cake (up to 210 g/kg total DM) in beef cattle finishing diets decreased eating and rumination rates, thereby decreasing average daily gain and, consequently, final BW and HCW. However, qualitative carcass attributes were not affected by the use of palm kernel cake.

Drought is a major constraint to oil palm plantation in many regions relying on rainfall. One strategy to overcome this problem is to develop drought-tolerant cultivars through screening and selection. Drought tolerance assessment based on growth and physiological traits provides an alternative approach for rapid screening especially in tree crops. The aims of this study were to determine the contribution of some growth and physiological parameters to drought response variation in oil palm seedling and to use those parameters to evaluate relative drought stress tolerance in tenera oil palm progenies. Eight D × P progenies were grown under well-watered, moderate and severe stressed conditions for a total of 6 months. Data on growth traits, maximum quantum yield (Fv/Fm), SPAD value and proline content were recorded. Principal component analysis (PCA) on studied traits revealed that PC1 and PC2 explained 74.57 and 76.80% of total variance in moderate and severe drought treatments, respectively. Major contributions towards the variation of control and drought-treated plants were identified and appeared to be growth traits in moderate drought stress and growth trait plus proline content in severe drought stress. According to drought tolerance index, PCA analysis and ranking method using integrated PCA values, PSU-106 and PSU-206 were identified to be relatively high tolerant to severe drought stress, while PSU-106, PSU-128, PSU-206 and PSU-208 were tolerant to moderate drought stress. Field validation of D × P progenies selected as drought tolerance is recommended to establish this indirect selection approach in oil palm breeding programme.

Oil palm plantations are rapidly expanding in tropical areas, although the nature of the impacts on the functional roles of the different species in the ecosystem is poorly understood. The present study is the first assessment of how oil palm affects the functional diversity of birds in the Brazilian Amazon and tests the hypothesis that converting forest to oil palm decreases functional diversity of bird communities, selecting species more tolerant to environmental disturbances. We conducted point counts to survey bird communities in 16 plots in the eastern Amazon. We sampled 32 points in riparian forest, 128 in oil palm and 160 in forested habitats. To test whether the conversion of forest into oil palm plantations affects functional diversity of birds we calculated the FD (Functional Diversity) and FRic (Functional Richness) indices. To examine whether oil palm plantations select species functionally more similar than expected by chance we used a null model (SES.FD). FD was significantly higher in the forest plots in comparison with riparian forests and oil palm, and lower in oil palm when compared with riparian forests. FRic, in turn, was greater in forest plots than in oil palm and in riparian forest. These results show that the conversion of forested areas to oil palm represents a great loss of functional strategies. The SES values indicate that in forested habitats bird communities tend to be functionally clustered while in the oil palm they are functionally overdispersed. The functional traits most affected by oil palm were those associated with diet and foraging stratum. In short, oil palm plantations reduced functional diversity of birds, although the presence of riparian forests within the plantations and the fragments of forest adjacent are extremely important for the maintenance of ecosystem services.

Next-generation sequencing is a new technique for plant genome sequencing at a large scale that is faster and cheaper than previous sequencing technologies. The present work reports the development of new polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) using Illumina HiSeq sequencing data. More than 39 Gb (total 39,086,646,904 bases) was generated from the selected oil palm clone, D4. After de novo assembly, a total of 130,840 potential SSRs were identified. For SSR validation, 144 out of 762 SSR primer pairs were designed, including tri-nucleotide motifs, from the D4 contigs. Using 11 lines from three different clones of oil palm, 61 SSR primers revealed polymorphic alleles and high average polymorphic information content (PIC) values. Cluster analysis separated all oil palm plants into three clusters: clones A, B and C. These identified genome-wide SSR markers will enrich current genomic resources of the oil palm crop.

Pestalotiopsis is a disease that causes damage to the leaves of Elaeis guineensis Jacquin and defoliation in commercial plantations. Lepidoptera larvae are the main insects that spread the disease. The aim of this paper is to report for the first time the insects found in oil palm plantations in Colombia. Lepidoptera larvae were collected from cultures in the presence of Pestalotiopsis and were identified to species level. Severity and duration of the symptoms of Pestalotiopsis were evaluated from the damage caused by the insects of each species. Eighteen species of the families Dalceridae (one), Elachistidae (four), Limacodidae (eight), Megalopygidae (two), Nymphalidae (one), Psychidae (one) and Saturniidae (one) confirmed assistance and disease transmission. Increased severity of Pestalotiopsis damage was induced by Acharia hyperoche, Acraga ochracea, Durrantia arcanella, Euclea diversa, Euprosterna elaeasa and Stenoma impressella. The development of Pestalotiopsis on the leaves of E. guineensis and its symptoms were observed between 16.8 and 72.9 days. The damage caused by these insects on the leaves of E. guineensis was the main entrance of the virulent fungal spores. The results of this study contribute to the knowledge of Lepidoptera that attend and spread the Pestalotiopsis fungus on leaves in oil palm plantations. To our knowledge, no previous records of this disease on the plant are found in Colombia.

Deforestation rates in South-East Asia are among the highest of any tropical region, with expansion of oil palm being one important factor. Despite this, few studies have investigated the impact of oil palm expansion on the arthropod fauna. We report here the first study on the impact of forest conversion to oil palm on overall arthropod abundance, biomass and composition. We compared arthropod abundance and biomass, collected from epiphytic bird's nest ferns, the canopy, and leaf litter between primary forest, logged forest and oil palm plantation. Epiphytes, canopy and litter all contained a lower abundance (epiphytes: 67.2%, canopy: 2.3% and litter: 77.1% reduction) and biomass (epiphytes: 87.5%, canopy: 37.9% and litter: 72.4% reduction) of arthropods in oil palm compared with primary forest. However, not all orders of arthropods showed the same level of decline, with some groups having higher abundance and biomass in oil palm, resulting in an altered community composition in the epiphytes and canopy in oil palm compared with forest. Our results show that forest conversion to oil palm impacts detrimentally on invertebrates in all compartments of the forest ecosystem.

The allelic diversity within oil palm populations (45 native ones from 10 African countries, three breeding populations and one collection of semi-wild material) was determined using 16 microsatellite markers. A total of 209 alleles were detected, with a mean number of 13.1 alleles per locus. The mean effective number of alleles per locus (Ae) was 3.3 ± 1.3. Although the Duncan's multiple range test only separated the group of populations from Madagascar from the rest on the basis of Ae, the presence of unique and rare alleles and high values of Ae suggest that 23 of the African populations should be conserved to secure allelic diversity.

This paper reviews marker methods based on retrotransposons and illustrates examples from oil palm. Prior to this study, very little had been known about the repetitive DNA present in oil palm and no marker systems based on retrotransposons had been developed. Firstly, copia like retrotransposons of Elaeis oleifera, Elaeis guineensis and Cocos nucifera were characterized by performing phylogenetic analyses on a portion of the reverse transcriptase (RT) gene of copia-like retrotransposons. The results identified three classes of copia-like retrotransposons in the three species studied. While the C-class RT sequences seemed to have amplified preferentially only in Elaeis guineensis, the classes A and B were present in Elaeis guineensis and Cocos nucifera as well. Secondly, long terminal repeats (LTRs) from these retrotransposon classes were isolated as a prelude to developing a marker system in palm based on retrotransposons. The B- and C-class LTRs were isolated by primer walking from the RT region and the B-class from Elaeis oleifera and Cocos nucifera with the use of oil palm-specific RnaseH primers. The method has been developed and applied for breeding purposes in oil palm, hybrids between E. oleifera and E. guineensis and within the tribe Cocoeae. There is scope for the method to be used in the isolation of new retrotransposon families endogenous for each palm species and as an alternative to amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) in diversity studies within the Palmae.

The leaf miner Coelaenomenodera lameensis Berti & Mariau (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Hispinae) is the most serious pest of oil palm in West Africa. A study of mortality factors was carried out at 19 sites located in seven plantations of 3000–7000 ha, over a 2–4-year period in the early 1980s throughout the forest zone of Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa. All life history stages of C. lameensis were found to be attacked by natural enemies. Fluctuations in numbers of egg parasitoids were related to climatic factors and host population dynamics and parasitism rates varied substantially among sites. High egg mortality in C. lameensis, related to parasitism, was directly linked to climatic factors, mainly relative humidity. Fluctuations in egg mortality not linked to parasitism were similar among plantations. There was also a negative correlation between beetle fecundity and egg mortality; climatic conditions favourable to an increase in fecundity also disfavoured egg mortality. This can be a major cause of population increase of larval C. lameensis. Different species of larval and pupal parasitoids and predators were observed. In addition, viruses, isolated from dead larvae in galleries, killed 55–60% of the larvae, probably playing an important role in limiting populations. The destruction of mines by several species of ants also eliminated about 25% of beetle larvae. Parasitoids played a smaller role (less than 10% of larval mortality is due to parasitoids). Mortality in larvae and pupae can exceed 90%, but varied widely from one plantation to another. Examples of mortality tables are given for clearly characterized situations and they help to explain the stability of populations and the occurrence of outbreaks on a plantation or sites scale. Mortality rates lower than 98.6% can lead to population instability and an outbreak in an area.

Catantops spissus spissus were reared in groups of 10 using Calapogonium mucunoides, Zea mays, Elaeis guineensis and Manihot esculenta separately. The proximate compositions of these various food types were analysed and energy contents calculated. This was to establish how food types can influence the rate of development of the insects.

The results showed that insects reared on C. mucunoides and Z. mays had the fastest maturing period in days while insects reared on E. guineensis and M. esculenta developed much later. The rate of food consumption could not be related directly to the amounts of individual nutrients nor the total energy content of the food. On the other hand the rate of development of the insect appeared to be directly related to total energy derivable from the overall food consumed. In addition, differences in the rate of development were noticed at the various instar stages. This was also related to the amount of energy consumed from the food types at the particular instar stage.

The seasonal distribution and abundance of adult Temnoschoita quadrimaculata Gly., a pest of oil palm in Ghana was studied. The weevil occurred throughout the year with a peak of abundance from March to June. It preferred breeding in cut fronds which result from harvesting or pruning and was more abundant in 3–6 days old cut fronds.

Adult weevils preferred the upper third portion in comparison to the lower and middle third portion of the palm tree. Their incidence and abundance in pruned plantations was statistically greater (P < 0.05) than in unpruned plantations. Older palm trees were relatively more susceptible to attack than younger ones. Adult weevils preferred feeding on the fresh frond tissues than on leaflets.