458 



The Supplement to th Tropical Agriculturist 



A NEW COCONUT PEST. 



AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY IN THE 



PHILIPPINES. 

 The planting community of Ceylon will be 

 greatly interested to learn that a parasite of the 

 coconut palm, which may prove to be a most 

 serious pest, has been discovered by a Govern- 

 ment Agricultural Inspector in the Philippines. 

 This insect is related to the White Fly of the 

 citrus orchards of Florida, and this fact alone 

 is sufficient to cause the coconut planters con- 

 siderable anxiety. The pest has been termed 

 the Coconut White Fly, and is at present con- 

 fined to one district. It appears that this is the 

 first occurrence of any insect of this genus in 

 the Philippine Islands, and the species itself is 

 new to science. A similar species exists in the 

 West Indies, and has caused immense damage, 

 some districts having even been abandoned 

 largely on account of its attacks. 



Like all of the so-called "White Flies" (which, 

 of course, are not flies) and the related "scales," 

 the individuals are very small, and not readily 

 noticeable except when present in large colo- 

 nies. The general colour of the older indivi- 

 duals is white or grayish ; at first the larvre are 

 nearly naked, and of a pale brownish shade, but 

 when about half-grown they develop a fringe of 

 white waxy material around the edge of the 

 body. This waxy substance, as the insect grows, 

 gradually covers the entire body with a mass of 

 cottony thread-like appendages and waxy flakes. 

 The minute eggs are laid on the under-surfaces 

 of the leaflets, usually on the yoang leaves of 

 the palm. Thus far it appears the insect is 

 attacking by preference only the young palms, 

 that is, those under 6 or 8 years of age, but 

 unless checked, it will probably soon spread to 

 all the palms in the vicinity. Soon after the 

 eggs are hatched the young insect begins walk- 

 ing on the underside of the leaf in the endeavour 

 to find a suitable position for its attack ; satis- 

 fying itself as to location, it inserts its beak 

 through the epidermis of the leaf, and begins to 

 suck the sap from the soft inside, tissue ; after 

 becoming thus attached, the young insect sel- 

 dom moves, unless disturbed, until it attains its 

 full size. Shortly before emerging as a winged 

 insect it stops feeding, but remains attached to 

 the leaf. Though comparatively weak fliers, the 

 danger of their passing through the air from one 

 tree to another is greatly increased by the action 

 of winds, since when the insect may only wish to 

 fly from one leaf to another it may accidentally 

 be borne by the wind to a considerable distance, 



Some of the colonies contain scarcely more 

 than a dozen individuals, while others contain 

 many thousands and form an irregular white 

 area over the underside of the leaf. This feature 

 of their colour is exceedingly valuable to the 

 coconut planter, since it readily allows him to 

 readily determine the presence of u colony in 

 his grove. Although a hymenopterous irsect, 

 evidently a parasite of this coconut pest, was 

 observed in the act of laying eggs in or upon 

 the immature White Flies, it is not likely that 

 any parasites will be of much avail in checking 

 the spread of this pest. Therefore the coconut 

 planters in the infested district are going 

 through their groves, cutting off and burning 

 all attacked leaves, or portions thereof. At the 

 same time they are looking over their young 

 groves carefully for the same signs. The Bureau 

 of Agriculture recommends in the worst cases to 

 treat the pest with kerosene emulsion, or some 

 similar spray, provided he has had experience 

 with such remedies. Fumigation is only re- 

 commended in extreme cases. The Bureau fur- 

 ther says that if the pest is taken in hand 

 immediately there is very little chance for it 

 spreading to other districts of the Philippines. 



When it is considered that the coconut in- 

 dustry is one of the largest in the Philippines, 

 the importance of this discovery is readily seen. 

 That it might develop and spread to other 

 sections of the East, the author of the article, 

 Mr. D. B. Mackie, thinks quite possible, unless 

 it is checked at once. Although a pest of this 

 nature has not been identified in Ceylon as yet, 

 one of our coconut planters informed an Observer 

 representative upcountry recently, that some 

 sort of a new pest, he thought, was at work, al- 

 though signs of it were very rare, and what its 

 species was, he could not as yet say. It does 

 not take the form of the Coconut White Fly, 

 however, but is more mild in its attack, and not 

 so menacing to the palm as the former. We 

 trust it will not be the ill-fortune of our planters 

 to discover such a parasite in Ceylon as we 

 have described above. 



COCONUT PLANTING. 



VALUABLE HINTS. 

 By a Pkactical Plani'Ek. 

 There has been a lot of talk lately of a coming 

 boom in coconuts. Much depends on what one 

 considers a boom. There will never be the same 

 wild excitement over coconuts as there was over 

 rubber, for coconuts can never give the enor- 

 mous profits that rubber has given and still gives. 

 That many thousands of acres of land will be 



