COPRA AND PESTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16806, 20 November 1928, Page 12

COPRA AND PESTS

LEVUANA MOTH AND RATS RESEARCHES IN ISLANDS SUVA, Nov. 5. Copra is the life-blood of the Solomon Islands, and like many gother South Pacific Islands, they have their! pests which affect the industry to a great extent. The Solomons come under the jurisdiction of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, Sir Eyre Hutson, and its destinies are, therefore, to a certain extent interwoven with those of Fiji. Consequently when it was found necessary t> have expert advice the assistance of the Fiji Government was sought, and Dr. Tot hill, superintendent of agriculture, a noted entomologist, who has made a name for himself in his fight in Fiji against the levuaua moth, which for many years played havoc, with the coconut crops, was sent to the Solomons three months ago, accompanied by another of Fiji's entomologists, Mr. Paine. He returned this week. He has not yet prepared his report, but when interviewed he touched on a numoer of points which are of first importance/to Fiji and to any copra-growing country. Referring to the levuana moth Dr. Tothill said that in the Solomons they had found insects very closely resembling levuana, as it is known in Fiji, but' not the. actual pest itself. One of the variations was found in the coconut, one in ginger and one in wild bananas.- All three were very scarce, and there were many parasites, which prey on them and kept them down; .All the way through Malaya, Java, New Guinea, down to the Solomon and Now Hebrides and Fiji was a definite chain of these varieties. Down to the Solomons they became thinner and thinner in each group on account of the presence in strength of parasites. The Solomons, however, was the last place where the paarsites were found, and it appears that the levuana may be one of the chain of varieties which has flourished here and developed into a post on account of the break in the chain of parasites which have not been able to bridge the gap between the Solomons and Fiji.

Dr. Tothill was very much interested in a crop which flourishes in the plantations in the Solomons, and he is making arrangements to introduce it to Fiji. It was desmodium, a cloverlike leguminous plant, which does extremely well in the plantations, covering the ground with an excellent green sward, of which the cattle are very fond and on which they thrive. It was introduced many years ago into the Solomons from Japan by the then resident commissioner, Mr. Woodford. One of the wonderful features of the plant is that, once if; is established, it defies all weeds.

Trior to Dr. Tothill's departure from Suva -the coconut committee discussed the question of introducing owls to combat the rat pest on plantations. Rats climb the palm trees and live in them, gnawing holes in the nuts, from which they get both food and water, or rather, coconut milk. The nuts then fall and arc useless for enpra. The losses have been very serious recently, particularly on 'account of the dry weather. Dr. Tothill was asked to make what inquiries he could in this matter; so when in Sydney he called on Dr. Le Soeuf, a well-known naturalist, in' charge of Taronga Park, and discussed the matter with him. Dr. Le Soeuf showed him a species of owl in the zoo, Ninox Nnviae Hollandiae, which had been sent on a similar mission to Lord Howe Island where, over A number of years, very favorable results had been obtained. There had been a decided decline in the number of rats, and a big percentage of this'decline could he set down to the ravages of the owls. This particular species was peculiar in that it was essentially a rat-feeder—lived on rats entirely. Dr. Le Soeuf told him that there was no possibility of it becoming a pest on poultry or insectivorous birds. Dr. Tothill ordered a dozen pairs of the owls to be sent to Fiji.—Auckland Herald correspondent. / t , 3c=g=Bg"ga