-409- 
THE EFFECT OF THE HURRICANE OF SAN CYPRIAN 
ON INSECTS IN PUERTO RICO 
•""-'' G. N. Wolcott ' ,-, 
Insular Experiment Station, Rio Piedras, Puerto RiCo 
The north coast of Puerto Rico was swept by a hurricane. on the night of Sep- 
tember 26, 1932, the violence of which continued for four or five hours into the 
morning of the 27th. The direction of the wind was almost entirely from the 
north and northeast; it veered to the south less than half an hour before decreas- 
ing greatly in intensity. Only slightly less than the reported maximum velocity 
■of 160 miles per hour was maintained throughout most of the period of the hurri- 
cane. 
The effect of the hurricane on many insects presumably will not be marked; 
those which are subterranean, for instance, "being "but little affected by the high 
wind, while the rainfall accompanying, was no more than the -oreciriitation of many 
an ordinary storm. On the first night after' the hurricane a May beetle, Fnylloph- 
aga -portpricensis Smyth, was noted at candlelight on the second story of a house 
in Rio Piedras, and on the following night two "black "hard-back" "beetles, Dyscine- 
t\;s harbatus Fab., were found under similar conditions. The entrances of ant nests 
in the ground were noted as being open by the second morning; and while the food 
supply of the ants may differ from normal, it should not lack for quantity. Ants 
living in trees may, however, suffer a temporary loss in population, as branches 
weakened by their tunnels would presumably be most easily wrenched off by the 
Wind. Similarly, -insects living within plant tissue are but little affected,, the 
caterpillars of the sugarcane borer, Diatraea sacchara.lis Fab. , being uninjured, 
even when the cane itself is flat on the ground. 
Despite the almost total defoliation of most trees, leaf-feeding insects ap- 
pear to be present in normal abundance, more adults of the common large otiorhyn- 
chid: beetle Dianrepes abbreviatus L. having been noted in citrus nurseries at Rio 
Piedras and Bayamon a few days later than had previously been observed in several 
months. Even such apparently fragile, insects as butterflies may not have been 
much affected, except as their -habitat may have, temporarily been changed, a zebra 
butterfly, Helico n ius charitonius L. , for instance, having been noted flying 
about in the plaza at Rio Piedras far from the woodland glades it usually fre- 
quents. 
The insects feeding on dead or dying wood, on or under dead leaves, and on 
rotting fruit will of course have enormously increased sup-plies of food avail- 
able for their consumption, at least temporarily, but practically none after the 
supply at present available disappears, and a corresponding fluctuation in their 
abundance may be anticipated. 
As regards the natural enemies of insects, considerable numbers of dead toads 
have been noted since the hurricane, but these stupid animals are so often run 
over by automobiles under normal conditions that the observed mortality may be 
little more than would have occurred during heavy rainfall unaccompanied by high 
wind. In- defoliated' citrus groves birds seem much more numerous than formerly, 
for they arc not accustomed to the absence of leaves, and take no precautions to 
remain hidden; even if that were possible. So far as observed, there has been 
no great mortality among them, despite that reported after previous storms. For 
