"George"

In Pursuit Of

Entomologist's Fascinating Story of His Study of "Nutfall" in Solomon Islands.

COCONUT QUEST: by J. S. Phillips.

Published by Jarrolds, London; distri buted by Hutchinson & Co., Box 99, Melbourne. Price, 16/- stg.

HAVE you ever met an entomologist with a rich sense of humour, an artist’s ability to paint travel pictures in words, and the unusual gift of investing a hunt for bugs and bug “controls” with all the excitement of a thriller? If not, meet Mr. Phillips.

The story of Mr. Phillips is of special interest to coconut planters, because he is the man who attacked the mystery of immature nutfall in the Solomons. But all men who like a first-class travel book, and a racy and accurate description of conditions in the Pacific Islands, are recommended to read “Coconut Quest”.

The real story commenced several years ago, when Solomon Islands coconut planters began to report excessive nut fall. Normally, about 60 per cent of the young nuts fall off the fruiting-branches of the palms. But, in the affected plan tations, 90 per cent, of young nuts fell; and this made the trees unprofitable.

No one knew why the nuts fell. For years, experts argued and fought about it. Scientists from Fiji said it was the work of an insect. Two insects were sus pect: 1, Axiagustus; 2, Amblypelta coco phaga. There were not many of No. 2

about, so the Fiji men declared No. 1 guilty. Years passed—and careful ex periments proved that No. 1 was innocent.

Immature nut-fall increased. More ex perts were consulted. They decided that the trouble was due to local conditions of soil, rainfall and cultivation. Again, argument was long and painful. Certain planters made their own tests. They en closed fruiting-branches in fine gauze.

Those branches bore the normal quantity of nuts, while practically all the exposed branches, right alongside, lost most of their young nuts. Clearly, nutfall was caused by something that could not get through the mesh.

Levers Pacific Plantations Ltd. (owning most of the best plantations in the Solo mons) had by now become weary of con tributing to the cost of apparently useless experiments, and they decided to spend their money, instead, in employing a special entomologist. Mr. J. S. Phillips was engaged in London, and he arrived in Tulagi about the time that local opinion had discarded all other theories and agreed that excessive nutfall was caused by a bug. But what bug?

Bug No. 1 had been proved innocent.

The only other bug, No. 2. was declared to be too infrequent to be guilty. But they shut him up, in a gauze enclosure, with young coconuts, on an uninfected plantation—and 90 per cent, of the nuts fell!

Mr. Phillips forthwith applied himself to the study of Amblypelta cocophaga, whom, for the sake of convenience, he called “George”. He discovered how George worked. He was not a numerous, but he was a very, very busy bug; and two or three of him in a palm-top could destroy nearly all young nuts. He sank his proboscis into the youngsters and (al though this is not yet proved) he dis charged into them a poison which was fatal. Investigation proved, beyond doubt, that George caused the spreading nutfall which threatened to ruin all the plan tations in Guadalcanal and Malaita.

But why had this happened? The scientist had a real puzzle here, George was indigenous—he had been in the Solomons for centuries. The coconut plantations had been there for fifty years. Why had George not attacked before?

Mr. Phillips tracked George to the deep jungle and the uncultivated places, and studied him there; and after patient search, and fitting clues together like a fiction detective, he got the answer. Ants!

He made friends with two kinds of ants, Pheidole oceanica and Oecophylla smaragdina (nitida), which he promptly christened Fido and Oeco. And this is what he found. Under ordinary con ditions, Oeco, an alert, long-legged, big and busy ant, living much in the palm tops, takes good care of George and slaughters him before he can bite many young coconuts. Oeco is indigenous, and a natural enemy of the bug, George.

Fido is not. He is a small, pugnacious ant, which evidently was introduced to the Solomons by Europeans, just as he was in Hawaii. And in the Solomons, as in Hawaii and elsewhere, he is steadily driving the native ants back into the uncultivated country. Fido flourishes on cultivated land, where he can travel about easily and that is why he has ex terminated Oeco only in the plantations; and that, in turn, is why George has been allowed to come in and destroy the young nuts. For Fido is useless as an enemy of George. The quick and lively Oeco can catch George; the smaller and slower Fido cannot.

What a head-ache for a bug-hunter!

Mr. Phillips obtained data from the British Museum and decided that it might be possible, by a study of George’s brothers in East Indies and Australia, to

find a parasite to “control” George—a procedure that has been very successful in relation to other, similar pests.

So. in the book, we accompany the entomologist to outlandish places in the East Indies and Queensland, where he patiently tracks down the relations of George, identifies the parasites which destroy the George family, ships colonies of them to the Solomons, and finds time to make innumerable fascinating, and amusing observations on the strange places and peoples he visits.

But after years of work, George re mains unconquered. Some of the intro duced parasites have attacked George, but not heartily enough to control his pes tiferous operations. This is Mr. Phillips’ conclusion, and it is of vital interest to many owners of Solomons plantations:— “Can George be checkmated? I do not think so. Any of the usual methods are ruled out by their cost. Biological control seems the only hope and complete control is essential. Why? Because almost total nutfall can be effected by a population of only two or three bugs per tree. I doubt whether it is possible to reduce George’s numbers beyond this with para sites. The ant Oeco gave complete pro tection by keeping George away from the palms, but Fido is driving this benefactor out of the plantations, and the process can neither be reversed nor even ar rested. In theory, the solution is to find an ant which can overcome Fido and is speedy enough to keep George from the coconut palms. In practice, where is such an ant to be found? For, wherever Fido had landed, he has driven out the other species from all territories which satisfy his ecological requirements.

“The outlook for the coconut planta tions is very gloomy, for George inhabits nearly all the large islands of the group.”

—R.W.R.

EDITORIAL NOTE: It is to be hoped that this is not to be the last word in regard to immature nutfall. Apart alto gether from what individual enterprise has done, Messrs. Levers have spent hun dreds of thousands of pounds in estab lishing those Solomons plantations, and thousands more on research which has determined the cause of nutfall. There now is an obligation upon the Govern ment to carry on the nutfall investigation.

Despite the apparent pessimism of Mr.

Phillips, we believe that science can solve the problem. It is a job for the entomo logist and research should continue without interruption.

A careful reading of Mr. Phillips’ book gives cause for more hope than is seen

in Mr. Phillips’ conclusion. We believe that, if he had been able to continue the work, he eventually would have found a means of controlling George—if not by a parasite, then by altering the balance in the ant world The cause of all the trouble is the ant Fido. Well Fido was introduced —why cannot something else be introduced to deal with Fido?