40 COCONUT CULTIVATION 



of a serious kind is attacking the coconut palms 

 in the Philippines, and the Governor of the 

 Straits Settlements has in consequence taken 

 precautionary measures to prevent its influx 

 here by prohibiting the introduction from the 

 Philippines of any palms, alive or dead, or 

 any stems of, or parts of stems or roots of 

 palms. 



"The insect that does the damage is related 

 to the so-called white fly, which ravages the 

 citrus groves of Florida, and as far as I am 

 aware the pest has never made its appearance 

 either in the Straits, Province Wellesley or the 

 Federated Malay States. 



"Mr. D. B. Mackie, Agricultural Inspector, 

 in an article that appears in the Philippine 

 Agricultural Review for March, 1912, informs 

 us that the insect has been described by Mr. 

 Quaintance of the Bureau of Entomology, 

 United States Department of Agriculture, 

 Washington, D.C., as Aleyrodicus destructor, 

 and states that the insect may prove to be the 

 most serious pest of the coconut palm in the 

 Philippine Islands, but fortunately it is at 

 present confined to a district in Negros Oriental, 

 and is only attacking the young palms, i.e. from 

 six to eight years of age. He states that eggs, 

 which are very minute, are laid on the under 

 surface of the leaflets, usually on the young 

 leaves, and soon after the eggs are hatched the 

 young insect begins walking about on the 

 underside of the leaf and having located itself, 



