Insect Pests of Dates and the Date palm in Mesopotamia and elsewhere

Abstract

In the summer of 1918, there was every prospect of an unusually good crop of dates in Mesopotamia, until the month of June, when a large number of the half-grown dates suddenly became “hashaf” — an Arabic word signifying that they dried up and fell from the trees. This was a very serious matter, not only because the date is the principal resource of the country, but also because any and every disaster was at that time attributed by a section of the population to the British administration. At the end of July I was lent to the Directorate of Agriculture to carry out an investigation upon the failure of the date crop. I found that the principal pest, the larva of a Gelechiid moth, had finished its work, and had wandered away from the palms to pupate ; and though I was unable to solve the problem of its life-history, I had the good fortune to discover a good deal that was new about the insect pests of the date palm. At the time I published a report (1918), to which I only refer now in order to say that it was produced on the spot and without access to any books ; it contains certain inaccuracies, and anything of value which I may have discovered will be found in the present paper. During the course of my investigations I visited all the important date-growing areas of Mesopotamia, that is to say, Baghdad and its neighbourhood, the Diyala River from Ba’qubah to the Persian Frontier at Baba Pillawi, Mendali and Balad Ruz, Basra and the country round it, Mohammerah and Fao, the Lower Euphrates from Nasiriyeh to Suq-ash-Shuyukh, Qurnah and Amara. At the time of my visit the fruit was nearly ripe, so that it was not difficult to learn the distinctions between the different varieties of date palms, a point of great importance in view of the fact that they are liable to the various pests in varying degrees. I strongly recommend future investigators to familiarize themselves throughly with these varieties, and also with the very considerable number of Arabic words which are used specially for the date palm and its cultivation. This is no small task, as will be realized when I mention that in Mesopotamia about 70 words are employed by the peasants for various parts of the date palm ; the vocabulary relating to cultivation and methods of employment is just as extensive.