292 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



and the East African colonies to investigate the possibihty of 

 sericulture in these territories. Practical results were prevented at 

 the time by the economic depression, but developments may take 

 place later. 



INSECT PESTS OF STORED PRODUCTS 



The problems involved in the storage of products such as cocoa 

 and tobacco fall mainly in the provinces of Entomology and Myco- 

 logy, and to study them a Committee of the Empire Marketing 

 Board was set up in 1930 as an advisory body. Since then the 

 headquarters of investigation in Great Britain has been Professor 

 J. W. Munro's Department of Zoology and Applied Entomology 

 at the Imperial College of Science and Technology at South 

 Kensington, with a subsidiary laboratory at Slough. The work 

 at these centres includes studies in entomology, mycology, and 

 chemistry, and has been described recently by Munro (1933). For 

 long-range research the Empire Marketing Board formerly pro- 

 vided some -^4,000 per annum, and since its dissolution the Car- 

 negie Corporation has contributed £2,000, and the Dominions 

 and Colonies ;£"i,6oo per annum. For ad hoc industrial work an 

 additional sum, which fluctuates from £2,000 to £3,000 per 

 annum, is provided by the industries concerned. 



This department has been of particular importance in reporting 

 to the producing areas in Africa concerning the state in which goods 

 arrive in England, and in directing attention to those pests which 

 are most harmful in European warehouses though they may be 

 relatively unimportant in Africa. 



The government entomologists and mycologists in Africa have 

 also paid much attention to these pests, especially in Southern 

 Rhodesia, where the tobacco in storage suffers serious loss from 

 insects, and in the Gold Coast and Nigeria, where stored cocoa is 

 particularly susceptible. 



One of the worst pests is the cocoa-moth Ephestia elutella (also 

 E. cautella). This has been the subject of special research in the 

 Gold Coast, where Cotterell (1934) has investigated its life history 

 and means of control. A weevil [Araecerus fasciculatus) ^ which is dis- 

 cussed by Cotterell in the same bulletin, has also been the cause 



