In Micronesia
pp. 61-62 · Read in the full issue
Control Of Insects
CONSIDERABLE entomological work is being done in Micronesia under direc tion of a committee of the Pacific Science Board called the Insect Control Committee for Micronesia. The Pacific Science Board, established by the National Research Council in 1946 to aid scientific investigation in the Pacific and to advise governmental and other agencies on scientific matters pertaining to the Pacific, was the natural organisation to which the Administration of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands should refer problems of quarantine and control of insect pests in Micronesia.
In 1946, two entomologists, Dr. Henry K.
Townes and R. G. Oakley, investigated and reported upon insect problems and conditions in the area in connection with the economic survey of Micronesia made under the auspices of the United States Commercial Company.
They found a few major insect pests and a number of minor entomological problems. They recommended the estab lishment of quarantine, both to keep pests of other lands from getting into Micro nesia, and to prevent the spread of those pests already on the islands. And they proposed an insect survey of various island groups as a basis for a wider know ledge of the insects of the region.
Informal discussion between Admiral Louis E. Denfeld, then High Commis sioner for the Trust Territory, and Harold J. Coolidge, Executive Secretary of the Pacific Science Board, regarding ways and means of investigating insect problems in Micronesia, followed in May, 1947, by an official request for assistance by the Chief of Naval Operations to the National Research Council, led to the appointment of the Insect Control Committee for Micronesia in July, 1947. The Committee consisted of C. E. Pemberton, entomologist, Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association, Honolulu, chairman; Professor Harry S.
Smith, head Division of Biological Con trol, University of California, Riverside; C. P. Clausen, chief, Division of Foreign Parasite Introduction, Bureau of En tomology and Plant Quarantine, US De partment of Agriculture, Washington; and the entomologist on the staff of the Deputy High Commissioner. Trust Ter ritory, Guam, Elwood C, Zimmerman, of the staff of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’
Association and Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, and Dr. Joseph C.
Bequaert, curator of insects. Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, were appointed consultants.
The initial meeting of the Committee was held in Honolulu, September 30 to October 2, 1947.
Daniel B, Langford, who had been the
entomologist with the US Commercial Company, was appointed staff entomologist for the Trust Territory. He continued to investigate insect pests and to carry out control measures as recommended by the Committee. Kenneth L. Maehler, on loan
THIS is part of an article, by Dr. E, H.
Bryan, in “Far Eastern Survey,” of October 6, 1948. Dr. Bryan, a research geographer, was until recently Honolulu Officer of the Pacific Science Board. From January, 1946, until May, 1947, he was in charge of the Research Section of the Economic Survey of Micronesia conducted by the United States Commercial Company.
The article is of interest to landowners in the South Pacific; and it shows how the Americans already are dealing with their new Trust Territory of Micronesia (Caroline, Marshall and Mariana Islands).
from the Honolulu office of the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, was appointed quarantine officer, with head quarters at Guam. He undertook the_ task of drawing up quarantine regulations, based on the recommendations of the Committee, and of co-ordinating the work of various agencies in carrying out their enforcement.
FIVE field associates in entomology of the Pacific Science Board were sent into the field.
Theodore R. Gardner, on loan from the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quaran tine, spent one month in the Palau Islands, surveying the damage done to coconut palms by the rhinoceros beetle, Oryctes rhinoceros.
Dr. W. Harry Lange, on loan from the Agricultural Experiment Station, Uni versity of California (Davis), proceeded to Saipan, Tinian, and Rota Islands in the Marianas, where he studied the Mariana coconut beetle, Brontispa mariana, which damages the leaves of coconut palms, and the giant African snail, Achatina fulica, a general plant feeder.
These two scientists then visited the Philippines, Siam, and Malaya in search of natural enemies of the two coconut pests. Conditions in the Philippines pre vented extensive search there; but a large species of Scolia wasp was found in Malaya and nearly 100 of them were transported to Palau as parasites of rhino ceros beetle grubs; and some tiny wasps were procured in Malaya and Java and released in Saipan to parasitise the leaf beetle there.
Henry S. Dybas, on loan from the Chicago Natural History Museum, made a systematic survey and collection of in sects in the Palau Islands, from November, 1947, to February, 1948, and on Ponape Island during the next month. The more than 40,000 specimens which he procured have been pronounced by experts to be the finest collection of insects and their relatives to come out of these two Micro nesian regions.
Meanwhile, Dr, P. X. Williams, associate entomologist with the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association, proceeded to East Africa to study the giant African snail in its native land, and to attempt to find natural enemies to control it. He travelled extensively in Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar, finding and
studying a few parasites and predators of the snails. Some of these were trans ported to Honolulu, where they are being studied in quarantine.
Also in East Africa, both he and Harold Compere (who was there on a mission for the Division of Biological Control of the University of California) procured large Scolia wasps to serve as natural enemies of the rhinoceros beetle in Palau.
Five lots of adult wasps and one shipment of parasitised pupae of the beetle were sent by air freight, but mortality was high because of the length of the trip and the freezing weather encountered en route. Despite all this, a considerable number of wasps reached Palau alive and were liberated in coconut groves.
Dr. Williams finally accompanied two cages of wasps by air from Zanzibar to Palau, where he supervised the release of more than fifty female wasps, which it is hoped will lay their eggs on rhinoceros beetle grubs.
A second meeting of the Insect Control Committee for Micronesia was held in Honolulu on April 16, 1948, to review these accomplishments and to plan and recom mend future activities.
In July, 1948, Dr. Richard L. Doutt, on loan from the Division of Biological Con trol of the University of California (Albany), went to Saipan to investigate the status* of the natural enemies of the Mariana coconut beetle. He also planned to seek additional parasites for this beetle.