The Scarabaeoidea superfamily (Latreille 1802) consists of 12 families (including Scarabaeidae, Melolonthidae, Cetoniidae) comprising approximately 30 000 known species, and some 200 new species are described every year (^{Morón, 2010}). The Dynastinae subfamily (MacLeay, 1819) is among the most conspicuous; its members live in most biogeographic areas of the world (except in polar regions); however, most occur in the Neotropical region (^{Ratcliffe and Cave, 2014}). There are approximately 220 genera and 1 500 species in the world, although today the number of species is estimated to be 2 000 (^{Ratcliffe, 2003}; ^{Ratcliffe and Cave, 2006}).

86 genera with 800 species are estimated to occur in all of the new world (^{Endrödi, 1985}), while in the United States of America, Canada and northern Mexico there are 18 genera and 62 species (^{Ratcliffe, 2002}).

The dynastines include some of the largest insects in the world, with sizes above 15 centimeters for some members of the Dynastini tribe MacLeay, 1819, to which the rhinoceros beetles, the Hercules beetle and the elefant of unicorn beetles belong (^{Ratcliffe, 2003}; ^{Triplehorn and Jonhson, 2005}; ^{Ponchel, 2014}).

The Oryctes genus Illinger, 1798 comprises 42 species known across the world (^{Dechambre and Lachaume, 2001}; ^{BioLib, 2014}; ^{Ponchel, 2014}) and includes the main palm tree pests. However, the Strategus Kirby, (1828), Scapanes Burmeister, (1847), Xylotrupes Hope, (1837), Papuana Arrow, (191) and Chalcosoma Hope, (1837) taxa also share this status (^{Bedford, 1980}; ^{Giblin-Davis, 2001}).

Oryctes rhinoceros (Linneus, 1758), the Asiatic coconut rhinoceros beetle is one of the most harmful insects for the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera L.) and the African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) in southern and southeastern Asia and in the Western Pacific Islands, although it may attack other ornamental palm trees (^{Giblin-Davis, 2001}; ^{Schmaedick, 2005}). For example, it has been observed in royal or bottle palm trees (Roystonea regia (Kunth) O.F. Cook), the Chinese fan palm tree (Livistona chinensis (Jacq.) R. Br. ex Mart.), the Ceylon or Talipot palm tree (Corypha umbraculifera L.) and the raphia palm tree (Raphia spp. P. Beauv) in the Republic of Mauritius (^{Bedford, 1980}; ^{CABI, 2014}; ^{CAPS, 2014}).

It has also been observed in the banana palm tree (Musa spp. L.) (^{Sharma and Gupta, 1988}), the sugar cane Saccharum spp. L.), papaya (Carica papaya L.), sisal or henequen (Agave sisalana Perrine) and pinapple (Ananas spp. Mill) (^{Khoo et al., 1991}).

It is important to mention that almost 50 hosts have been registered, including Agave sisalana (sisal or henequen), A. americana L. (yellow agave), Ananas spp. (pineapple), A. comosus (L.) Merr. (pineapple), Casuarina equisetifolia L. 1759 (casuarina or Australian pine), Musa spp. (banana), Phoenix spp. L. (date palm), P. dactylifera L. (date palm), P. sylvestris (L.) Roxb. (wild date palm), and Saccharum spp. (sugar cane), among others (^{CAPS, 2014}).

O. rhinoceros causes damage by drilling inside the crown of palm trees; it attacks young tissue and feeds on the sap. It bores into the developing leaves; when these grow and spread outward, the cut appears in the form of a “V”; it also makes cuts on the base of the leave or frond and bores holes in its middle vein (^{Kumashiro et al., 2014}).

It should be noted that, in the case of O. rhinoceros, the imago is most harmful, as its larva feeds exclusively on rotting wood, and therefore it can even be considered a beneficial organism (decomposer or degrader) (^{Giblin-Davis, 2001}). In this regard, certain others point out that the habitat preferred by the O. rhinoceros larva is the dead stalks of Cocos nucifera (the coconut palm tree), followed by the rotting trunks of Artocarpus spp. J. R. Forst. & G. Forst. (bradfruit tree), Calophyllum inophyllum L. (Alexandrian laurel), Mangifera spp. L. (mango) and Pandanus spp. Parkinson (pandanus palm tree) (^{CAPS, 2014}).

The presence of Oryctes rhinoceros has been registered five times in port of entry to the United States of America; in every case there were living adults. Two shipments came from Indonesia, and one from China, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. It is worth noting that only one occurred in the main host, Cocos nucifera, which suggests that this pest species can travel in any type of material (^{CAPS, 2014}).

In January, 2014, at the USDA-ARS Systematic Entomology Laboratory, the presence of Oryctes rhinoceros was confirmed in a trap for monitoring pests at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii. This detection is a new register for this state (^{NAPPO, 2014}; ^{HDOA, 2014}; ^{Stocks, 2014}). For this reason, coordinated efforts were undertaken between the United States army, the Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), through the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) program in order to carry out actions that will allow the management and eradication of O. rhinoceros in the island of Ohau, Hawaii (^{Hoenisch, 2014}; ^{Kumashiro et al., 2014}; ^{McPartlan, 2014}).

Today, no hosts with presence, attack or risk map for O. rhinoceros are registered in the United States of America (^{CAPS, 2014}). However, it is important to note that, according to the ^{USDA-NRCS (2014)}, is main host, Cocos nucifera, can be found in Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States.

In the south of the United States of America, there is fear that it may become a problem in those areas where sugar cane and arborescent palms are commercially grown, as well as in various native landscapes with a high percentage of palm trees, such as Florida, California and Arizona (^{Stocks, 2014}).

The present document records the first intercept of the coconut rhinoceros beetle in the Manzanillo harbor, in Colima; one of the most relevant entry points of imported goods in Mexico; besides, it indicates certain implications, should this insect be introduced into the country.

In June 2014, the inspection staff of the Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente, Profepa (Federal Environment Protection Agency) collected a living adult specimen of the rhinoceros beetle at the facilities of the Manzanillo customs office during the inspection of a shipment of palm tree furniture (of an unknown species) from Indonesia (Figure 1). The insect was placed in a jar with 70 % alcohol and sent to the Laboratorio de Análisis y Referencia en Sanidad Forestal, LARSF (Analysis and Reference Forest Sanitation Laboratory) of the Dirección General de Gestión Forestal y de Suelos, DGGFS (Forest and Soil Management Department), which belongs to the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, Semarnat (Department of the Environment and Natural Resources), for its taxonomic determination (^{Dechambre and Lachaume, 2001}; ^{Ratcliffe et. al., 2002}; ^{Ratcliffe, 2002}; ^{Triplehorn and Johnson, 2005}; ^{Chandra and Gupta; 2013}); information from sites specialized in exotic pests, such as was also consulted ^{PaDIL (2014)}.

On the other hand, given the importance of the insect, information on the crops that might be affected by its establishment and dispersion was complementarily reviewed.

Based on the taxonomical revision, the specimen was determined to be an Oryctes rhinoceros, commonly known as the Asiatic coconut rhinoceros beetle (Figure 1). This insect has a robust appearance, the thoracic carina being doubly dented in the male and straight in the female, and with a strong, dense elytral punctuation (^{Dechambre and Lachaume, 2001}).

Source: A and B: photos by courtesy of PROFEPA at the inspectorate of Manzanilo. C and D: photos taken at the LARSF. A) Stack of furniture, B) Inside of a piece of furniture, C) Lateral-dorsal view, and D) Lateral view of the head.

Figure 1 Intercept of Oryctes rhinoceros (Linneus, 1758). 

According to several authors (^{Baena et al., 2008}; ^{Smith, 2009}; ^{Gasca-Álvarez and Ratcliffe, 2011}; ^{CABI, 2014}), it is an unregistered species in Mexico; furthermore, this is the first time that it has been intercepted at an entry point (harbor, airport or border) into the country (^{Semarnat-DGGFS-LARSF, 2015}). For this reason, and based on the definition of a quarantine pest: Ley Federal de Sanidad Vegetal (Federal Plant Sanitation Law) (^{DOF, 2011}) -a pest with a potential economic importance for the endangered area, even when the pest is not present or, if present, has not spread and is under official control-, phytosanitary measures were applied in order to prevent the dispersion of the insect while the shipment remained in the harbor; these measures consisted in fumigating all the product with methyl bromide, in doses of 60 g³ during 48 h, and incinerating the goods and notifying the source country if its failure to comply with the phytosanitary conditions.