WASPS SENT BY PLANE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21816, 12 September 1945, Page 7

WASPS SENT BY PLANE

ZANZIBAR TO' SAMOA COCOANUT BEETLE KILLER (10 a m.) LONDON, Sept. 11. A species of wasp are being flown from Zanzibar to Samoa in specially prepared kerosene tins marked “priority.” They are scolia-ruficornis, and it is hoped they will prove effective in combating the rhinoceros or cocoanut beetle which is ravaging Samoa’s coconnut trees.

The pupa or cryralls is bcir.g collected in Zanzibar by Mr. H. W. Simmonds. former Government entomologist in Fiji. * So far three consignments have been sent via London and America, but out of hundreds of insects despatched very few have reached Samoa alive. They are packed in tins containing food, largely comprised of honey. These had to be constructed in such a way that the air could get in but not mosquitoes. They were sent via Cairo to London, where the Entomological Institute of the Natural History Museum, at the request of the New Zealand Goyernment reconditioned the tins, which were then flown across the Atlantic to America and then to Samoa, via Hawaii. Others went via England, America and Fiji. This route not having proved successful, turther consignments are now being sent by way of Cairo, India and Australia. Two consignments are now stated to be en route. It is believed that the insects are the first of the wasp family to travel by aircraft with priority in wartime—as the experiments were continuing for some time before peace arrived.