175 



DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE, P. M. S. 



Dr. W. J. Gallagher, a distinguished student at Queen's 

 College, Cork, and a graduate of the Royal University of Ireland, 

 has been appointed Mycologist to the Department of Agriculture, 

 Federated Malay States. He has been engaged in research under 

 Dr. HARTOG, Professor of Natural History, Queen's College, and 

 obtained a research studentship from the Commissioners ot the 

 1851 Exhibition which was renewed on account of the excellence 

 of his first year's work. Dr. GALLAGHER .has spent the last three 

 months in a tour of the great Conlinental Universities to see the 

 latest methods of investigation in plant, pathological and mycolo- 

 gical laboratories and will take up his duties in the beginning of 

 April. 



The laboratories and offices of the Department of Agriculture, 

 Federated Malay States, are approaching completion They are 

 situated at the Rubber Experiment Plantations, Kuala Lumpur, 

 and consist of a two-storey building 130 feet long, containing a 

 capacious Chemical laboratory and other laboratories for the Director, 

 the Government Mycologist, the Entomologist, the Superintendent's 

 Experiment Station and other Scientihc workers as well as Library 

 and Offices. 



. The Department will be much helped in its work by getting into 

 >ts new quarters the present temporarv accommodation, as the 

 institute for Medical Research being quite inadequate, as well being 

 Jour miles f rom the rubber experimental plots. 



J. B. C. 



COCO-NUT BEETLES IN THE PHILIPPINES. 



In the ^Philippines Journal of Science" Vol. I, No. 2, p. 143. ™ f» 

 KfH a J? ,de on the principal insects injurious to the coco-nut palm 

 T Mr - C - S. Banks. In the Philippines, the rhinoceros beetle Oryctes 

 'hnoceros is as troublesome as it is here, and it is charged with 

 ** ,n g the growing part of the bud when in the larval stage. The 



nPl u e for this is not ver y stron S and ma >' be doubted - lt naii 



i i 7a 1 known t0 do so here - The P^" of creostin S the insects 

 ana leaving them in the tree is condemned on the ground that the 

 ^ym g beetle would attract ants « Which in turn would draw 

 \z£l m T tS Such as white ants." But this is the very reason for 

 miar^ cor P se in hole, it does attract ants and no better 

 weeS anS 0f the ^ee could be found, no other rhinoceros beetle, 

 ant, 1 ° r ' vhlte ants can or will face the carnivorous ants. Where 

 Philip S6en there is f ear of other pests of this nature. The 

 RkvSS^ P alm we evil is described and figured and identified as 

 of Z l t orus f^'Wncus. It is, however not identical with that 

 habits lts Settlements, being of quite different coloration and 



