Nationality Puerto Rican | ||
Occupation Agricultural scientist and agronomist Died 1907, San Juan, Puerto Rico | ||
Fernando López Tuero (1857–1907) was an agricultural scientist and agronomist who discovered the bug (believed at first to be a germ) which was destroying Puerto Rico sugar canes.
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Agricultural epidemic
In the latter part of the 19th Century, an epidemic was affecting the agricultural industry of Puerto Rico. Among the crops affected was the sugar cane, whose main product "sugar" was vital to Puerto Rico's economy. The Spanish colonial government created an emergency commission composed of scientists, which included Dr. Agustín Stahl and Fernando López Tuero, to study the situation. Dr. Stahl concluded that the epidemic was caused by a "germ" in the terrain, however his findings were inconclusive. In 1894 Fernando López Tuero, the head agronomist of the Agronomical Station of Río Piedras, discovered that the cause of the epidemic was the white grub (Phyllophaga).
The Phyllophaga is a very large genus (more than 260 species) of New World scarab beetles in the subfamily Melolonthinae. These beetles are nocturnal, emerging in great numbers during the night. The adults are chafers, feeding on foliage of trees and shrubs. They may cause significant damage when emerging in large numbers. The larvae (called white grubs) feed on the roots of grasses and other plants.
López Tuero's scientific investigations have been included in Madre Teresa Cortés Zavala's "Fernando López Tuero, La Revista de Agricultura, Industria y Comercio de Puerto Rico y el progreso agrícola de 1885-1898" written for the Escuela de Historia; Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo.
Written works
Among López Tuero's written works are the following: