SOME INSECT PESTS IN THE WEST INDIES. 



53 



SOME INSECT PESTS AFFECTING CULTIVATED PLANTS 

 IN THE WEST INDIES. 



By EoBEBT Newstead, M.Sc, iV.L.S., &c. 



[Lecture read December 1, 1909.] 



In dealing with the insect pests affecting cultivated plants in the West 

 Indies I should like, in the first instance, to bear testimony to the 

 excellent results which have been achieved by the Imperial Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture- — until recently under the able guidance of SiK 

 Daniel Moeris, and the former official Entomologist, Mr. Maxwell 

 Lefeoy, and now of Mr. Ballou. 



I have no hesitation in saying that the various publications which 

 have emanated from this department are of a very high standard of 

 excellence, and that they take first rank among the innumerable publi- 

 cations which have been issued by similar institutions in other parts 

 of the world. 



Although the publications referred to were intended primarily for 

 the planters and horticulturists of the Lesser Antilles, they have proved 

 of inestimable value to agriculturists in those other West Indian Islands 

 — for instance, the Greater Antilles — which are not so fortunately 

 placed in having an Economic Entomologist to advise them regarding 

 the methods of prevention and control of the innumerable insect pests 

 which, unfortunately, have caused so great a loss to economic plants 

 under cultivation in these lands. 



Seeing that so much has already been accomplished in regard to 

 the West Indian insect pests I feel that it is unnecessary to traverse the 

 ground which has been so thoroughly investigated. I propose, therefore, 

 to confine my remarks to some of those insects which are injurious to 

 economic plants in the Island of Jamaica ; and more especially those 

 which came under my own observation during an expedition sent out 

 by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine towards the end of the 

 year 1908. 



I have pleasure in adding, however, that the subject of Economic 

 Entomology is now receiving every possible attention by the Director 

 of Agriculture for Jamaica, the Hon. H. H. Cousins, and his Assistant, 

 Mr. E. J. WoRTLEY, in whose able hands much good work has already 

 been done. I must here tender to these gentlemen my sincere thanks 

 for the kind and valued assistance which they gave during my stay in 

 the island, as without such help it would have been impossible to have 

 accomplished so much in so short a space of time. 



Ants Destroying the Flowers of the Cacao. 



So far as one could gather, the most destructive insect pest to the 

 cacao in Jamaica is a small black " fire ant," apparently a Myrmicid 



