Nationality Puerto Rican | Name Fernando Tuero | |
Died 1907
San Juan, Puerto Rico Occupation Agricultural scientist and agronomist | ||
Fernando Lopez 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. Agustin Stahl and Fernando Lopez 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 Lopez Tuero, the head agronomist of the Agronomical Station of Rio 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.
Lopez Tuero's scientific investigations have been included in Madre Teresa Cortes Zavala's "Fernando Lopez Tuero, La Revista de Agricultura, Industria y Comercio de Puerto Rico y el progreso agricola de 1885-1898" written for the Escuela de Historia; Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo.
Written works
Among Lopez Tuero's written works are the following: