Mites, nematodes and the multimillion dollar weevil

The African oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis Jacquin) is a major plantation crop throughout much of the Old and NewWorld tropics, and its successful pollination is dependent primarily on the flower weevil, Elaeidobius kamerunicus (Faust). Among the several invertebrates found with E. kamerunicus in oil palm flowers are a bacteriophagous nematode and an undescribed mite species of the ascid genus Proctolaelaps . Both utilize E. kamerunicus for dispersal from senescent to newly opened oil palm inflorescences, and Proctolaelaps sp. feeds on the phoretic nematodes during the transfer phase.