Pests of Economic Plants in Samoa and other Island Groups

Abstract

During two years (1924 and 1925) spent in Samoa by Dr. P. A. Buxton and myself, while employed in research on filariasis for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, we made notes of such agricultural pests as came our way, though (our main interests being medical) we were not able to investigate them at all thoroughly. For this reason the fact of an insect being recorded only on one occasion is no indication that it did not occur in other months, or even that it was uncommon, since we frequently did not continue to make notes of the occurrence of a species we had once recorded. Though our observations make no claim to completeness, they are perhaps worthy of publication in view of the scarcity of records from this group of islands. Our observations on medical and veterinary entomology have been published as a Memoir of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In that Memoir we have published maps, and short accounts of the structure, flora and climate, of Samoa.