Rhino Problem “For Some Time”

Although there have been advances in the world-wide research Wort against the rhinoceros bettle, which attacks coconut palms, “the ■problem is going to be with us for quite some time”.

This statement came from Knowles A. Ryerson, senior United States Member of the South Pacific Commission and dean of the College of agriculture of the University of California. He was speaking to a WIM” correspondent in San Francisco. The well-known agricultural scientist not long ago completed a world trip in connection with the i'PC’s rhinoceros bettle eradication programmes , visiting Hawaii, Noumea, Madagascar, Kenya and Rome.

“This is a long-term basic research problem,” Dean Ryerson said.

The SPC, he explained, has had two Rockefeller Foundation re search grants totaling $60,000. These funds have supported contract nxjrfc undertaken by French scientists in Madagascar to determine fhe life history and temperature factors in the development of the beetle The funds are also supporting SPC staff experts working in Tenya to isolate diseases of the beetle and to learn how nature may used to combat the beetle. In Kenya, Dean Ryerson said, “our people have worked out two diseases which seem to have an affect \n the beetle, but they have not yet been specifically identified and * isn’t known if they are of a virus, fungus or bacterial nature. We \re making a most careful study now”.

An expert of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association working cor three months in Central America will co-operate with SPC eradication studies, Dean Ryerson said. And entomologists in West frica are also working on another project dealing with parasites that night affect the rhinoceros beetle and which may bring knowledge of yalue to Islands growers.