Nut-Fall in BSI
p. 69 · Read in the full issue
Entomologist Who Tracked Down the Cause
Letter to the Editor WITH reference to the first article on page 1 of September issue, I should like to draw your attention to the erroneous statement that Dr. J. S. Phil lips “discovered the cause of nut-fall in the Solomon Islands”.
A reference to two final authorities — the “Review of Applied Entomology”, Vol. 23, 1935, p. 634, Vol. 24, 1936, p. 328, also “Abstracts of Imperial Bureau of Horticulture”, Vol. 5, No. 3, September, 1935 —will show that the cause of the nut-fall was found out in that year by Mr. R. J. A. W. Lever, then entomologist to the BSI Government.
These two periodicals give reviews of papers published in the local “Agricul tural Gazette” (Vol. 111, Nos. 2 and 4, 1935) which was printed in Sydney before ever Dr. Phillips set foot in the Protectorate.
On page 3 of the same issue, you quote a second letter from Dr. Phillips, who
records finding the insect Amblypelta on cassava in 1938. Here, again, his record is not original, as in February, 1936, Mr.
Lever described a new species of this insect from cassava on Isabel Island, BSI.
Admittedly this paper (“Annals & Magazine of Natural History”, Series 10, Vol. XVII) is likely to be known only to specialists, but it was written concern ing specimens taken in July, 1935, three years before Dr. Phillips’ Malaita record.
I am, etc.,
H. W. Jack,
Director of Agriculture.
Suva, Fiji. 29/9/1941.