File:Oryctes virus ecology.jpg

English: The Oryctes rhinoceros nudivirus is the most important natural control agent of the coconut rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros), a serious pest of coconut palms in tropical parts of Asia and the Pacific. Outbreaks of the beetle are triggered when large number of breeding sites (decaying coconut trunks) become available during replanting of coconut plantations. Under these conditions, transmission of the virus is interrupted, because there is little contact between virus-infected beetles and healthy larvae or healthy adult beetles (upper part of the image). The population of O.rhinoceros is illustrated by 6 beetles, 2 of them infected with the virus. The outbreak can be avoided or reduced by hiding the trunks of the felled coconut palms under cover crop and by leaving a few dead standing palms (the preferred breeding sites of the beetle) to promote the transmission of the virus to healthy beetles and larvae (lower part of the illustration).