Invasive alien pest insect species represent a major threat for agriculture and biodiversity. Because chemical treatments
employed to contrast such pests elicit serious environmental and human health problems, a great effort is currently directed
to develop long term and environmentally friendly biological control strategies. However, the successful application of some
promising techniques, such as the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), requires a deep knowledge of the pest basic biology. Here, we
argue that understanding pest sexual biology using a social network approach can significantly improve the performance of control
strategies. For example, SIT may benefit from understanding how individuals interact and how males accede to reproduction,
in order to target the most reproductively active and polygamic males. In this paper we studied the socio-sexual networks of the
Asian red palm weevil (RPW) Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, a worldwide invader which is causing heavy economic impacts on
several palm species. We found that the RPW has a highly promiscuous mating system, characterized by forced interruptions of
pair copulations by additional males. The social network is highly non-random nor regular: few males almost monopolize reproduction,
behaving as key-players in the network of matings. Additionally, males have a stable pattern of sexual behaviour over
time. We use RPW social network as a case study to direct the development of management techniques such as SIT strateg
