Exit Levuana

End of a Fijian Pest

Malay Fly Saves Copra

Industry

ONE of the most important and in teresting developments in the South Seas in recent years is the success which has attended the efforts of the Fijian administration to get control of the cocoanut pest, the purple moth, known as Levuana Iridescens. By this success, a menace to the chief indus try of the Pacific has been removed.

It is sixty years since this insect was first noted in the large island of Viti Levu, where its attacks on coconut palms were found to bd so serious that the production of copra was impossible.

The result has been that, while all the other islands of the rich group have produced copra, worth not less than £500,000 annually, Viti Levu has had to look to sugar and other crops for reve nue.

During many years, while the pest was confined to the main island, the authorities sought methods of checking it, but nothing of moment was achieved. Suddenly, the moth appeared in the island of Ovalau, between Viti Levu and Vanua Levu—which meant

that the other islands and therefore the whole copra industry were threat ened. It meant, also, that if the pest could reach Ovalau, it might get across from Fiji to other South Ssa groups.

The Fijian entomologists speeded up their work. They had introduced from the Federated Malay States, with the greatest difficulty, a fly with the unpro nounceable name of Ptychomyia Re mota. At first, this creature did not appear to like its new home, and lang uished. Then, very quickly, it began to multiply, and by the end of 1926 war against Levuana began to enter a new phase.

By the end of 1927, so rapidly did the fly operate, the ranks of the moth, in the words of Sam Weller, had be gun to “wisibly shrink.” The defolia tion of the cocoanut palms by the pest in the affected areas of Viti Levu and Ovalau has now been markedly re duced, and there seems every reason for believing that the end of the Levuana moth is within sight, and that the copra industry can be established at last in Viti Levu. It is all in line with the great prosperity which Fiji has been enjoying.

Other parasites, calculated to cause Levuana a certain amount of excite ment and distress, had been discovered in Java; but in view of what the Malayan fly had achieved, they were not called into the conflict.

The only source of anxiety in Fiji now concerns the future activities of the fly. What will it attack when it has wiped out Levuana?

A glimpse of Suva, the capital of the flourishing colony of Fiji. This place, with its tropical beauty and equable and healthy climate, is destined to be the popular winter resort of Australians and New Zealanders.