Parasites For Pests

War on Rhinoceros Beetle

From Our Own Correspondent

Suva, Dec. 10.

THE Government entomologist, Mr.

H. W. Simmonds, F.R.E.S., 0.8. E., who has been for the past nine months on a scientific expedition in the East, has been successful in his search for a parasite to exterminate the rhinoceros beetle and the house fly.

In Madagascar, he secured a para site to destroy the rhinoceros beetle.

It is a large wasp, and he has estab lished two colonies of them in Western Samoa.

For the house-fly, Mr. Simmonds secured in Java a beetle which preys upon the house-fly in its early stages.

Mr Simmonds carried out extensive research in Java, Malaya, Mauritius and Madagascar, in his efforts to find these parasites, and it is hoped that they will establish themselves in these groups.

The rhinoceros beetle has been a most destructive and costly pest, and has wrought havoc among the copra plantations in Samoa for many years; while the common house-fly, besides being very troublesome in the Tropics, is a source of infection amongst the natives.

It is fortunate for Fiji that the rhinoceros beetle has never found its way into the Colony. With the large number of small and scattered islands in the group, it would be a colossal

task to deal with such a pest. In Samoa, the beetle is confined to the large islands of Upolo and Savaii, where the job of supervising the anti beetle campaign has been a much simpler matter.

Some 17 years ago the beetle was introduced into Keppel Island (Niua tobutabu), of the Tongan group, evidently in the days when the late Captain Allen, of Samoa, was trading there in the “Dawn”. The Tongan Government took prompt steps to deal with the pest, by imposing rigorous restrictions on the export of anything from the island to other islands in the Tongan group, and copra from Keppel Island had to be exported direct overseas and not brought to one of the main Tongan ports for shipment.

At the same time, the Government sent to Keppel Mr. M. Muller (now Superintendent of Agriculture in Tonga), and gave him very consider able authority to deal with the beetle.

Mr. Muller instituted a regular clean up of the island, with constant search parties for the grubs of the beetle, and was so successful in his task that by 1933 the island was found to be absolutely free of the beetle, and was declared clean again.

One noticeable result of the cleaning of the island was the practical dis appearance of house-flies, which had previously been a great pest.

Another island which was unfor tunate enough to get the beetle in troduced (again, apparently, from Samoa), is Wallis Island, a French colony. At one time, this island did

a considerable trade with Levuka, and the late Captain Christian Kaad in stituted a regular six-weekly service from Sydney to Suva, Levuka, Rotuma, Wallis, and Futuna —first by the steamer “South Australia”, which was wrecked at Futuna, and later by the steamer “Providence A”.

The service was continued by Burns, Philp for many years after they bought out Captain Kaad’s in terests, and was terminated only when the introduction of the beetle made trading with Fiji impossible, owing to Government restrictions.