Vol. VIII. Xo. 180. 



THE AGKICULTURAL NEWS. 



93 



INSECT NOTES. 



Fruit FI3- at Bermuda. 



The nccniiip.-uiying ai;cauiit nf the ravatres of the 

 -fruit fly at Beniimhi, and <•>(' the mea.'^uiv.s that have 

 been adopted for the exteiminatioii of tlie pest, has lieen 

 received from iTr. T. J. Harris, Superintendent of the 

 Botanical Department in that colony: — 



The Mediterranean fruit tiy {Crrcititis cajiihihi. Weid.) 

 lias been at work at Bermuda ssince about the year 1><(54, and 

 is .su]iposed to have been introduced, into tlie islands through 

 the medium of some peaches brought from Madeira. Tp to 

 that time, all the fruits of both the temperate and tropic 

 zones of the East and West grew and yielded in alnindant 

 profusion, while the nnicjue climatic conditions of Bermuda 

 imparted to them a distinctive flavour, and developed 



Fic. 15. C'EEATrris (.'ai'itaiw. 

 n. adult fly ; c. larva ; both enlarged. 

 (Beproduoed from Yt'ni--h(i(jk of U.S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, 1897, page .537). 



unusually large and luscious fruits. Peaches were tlie first 

 fruits to be attacked, but the fly soon began to attack other 

 kinds of fruit, and so serious have the ravages of this 

 insect become th.at (pntc 90 per cent, of the trees have been 

 cut down and destroyed 



When the Fruit Fly Destruction Act was pas.sed in 

 March 1907, these flies were so numcrou.s that they coulil lie 

 seen in great numbers crawling nver the fruits then in 

 .sea.son — loquats, citrus fruits, sweet peppers, clierimoyas, 

 Surinam cherries [Eiiticnia Mirlidi), Barbados gof)seberry 

 (Fercahia arutnatd), guavas, sapodillas, papaws, and young 

 peaches. 



A study of the life-history of the insect di.sclosed the 

 fact that it cannot reproduce itself without the aid of 

 a growing fruit, and that the female deposits her eggs -by 

 means of a .strong, horny ovipositor — within the tlei-h nf 

 .a fruit, injecting at the same time a poi.son (fornnc acid ' ), 



which kills the adjacent tissues, and commences the rottinjj 

 which accompanies the hatching of the eggs into maggots. 

 It would ap[iear that most of the food eaten by the fruit fly 

 is consumed while the insect is in the larval stage, for the 

 adult flies are ne\'er seen except when busy ovipositing, or 

 sheltering from lu'avy rain under the leaves. 



The policy at first pursued at Jtermuda was to collect all 

 ripening fruits, and to sink these in bags in the sea, 

 continuing to i-ollect until the existing flies had deposited al) 

 their eggs. It would not do to have .suddenly deprived the 

 flies of all fruit, for in one place where this was done they 

 immediately began to lay eggs in the bananas which 

 previously had been exempt from attack. 



An Inspector was ajipoiuted for each parish, with several 

 labourers, under the direction of the Botanical Department, to 

 do all the work of collecting, and [iruuing back, to prevent the 

 trees fruiting for some time, recording v/here fruit trees were 

 found, what they were, and making a diary of work done at 

 each place. The work was at first very difficult, but all soon 

 fell into line, until at the time of writing we find the flies 

 reduced from nullions to a dozen or so. We have now changed 

 our tactics and are endeavouring to give these few their final 

 ipiietus by depriving them of all the kinds of fruits now 

 kudwn to lie affected ; and as they habitually remain about 

 where they are bred, they will die without having found fruit 

 in which to deposit their eggs. 



In an article which lately apiieared in the A'jririi/fiiful 

 yeirx, the use of kerosene in small Hat trays is mentioned' 

 We tried this, even put some on the inside of the breeding 

 cage, first on one side and t;hen on the other. The Hies very 

 carefully avoided it and Hew to the other side. Some trays 

 of oil placed in the trees failed to catch a greater proportion 

 than of moths and other Hies. The high humidity of the 

 climate may have interfered with the diffusion of the oil vapour. 

 About a year ago some guavas from Dominica were 

 seized at the port of Hannlton, and found to contain fruit 

 rty maggots. These were bred . out and forwarded to 

 !>[■. Howard of the 1'. S. Department of Agriculture 

 for identification. They piroved to be Anastrephas uriduxa, 

 Weid., a much larger fly than Ccratitis rapitata, very ninch 

 like Trypeta ludeits in regard to the thorax and head, but 

 with a less abnormal abdomen. I have found maggots in 

 mangos at Jamaica on several occasions, and have the 

 impression that the later finds were the worst, though I did 

 not attach very nuich importance to it at the time. I sincerely 

 trust that no other colony will be allowed to suffer from the 

 fruit fly pest to the extent tliat l!erniuda has done during 

 the piast forty years. 



Lecture on Scale Insects at Jamaica. Pro- 

 fessor It. Xewstead, of the Liverpool School of Tropical 

 Medicine, in the course of his recent visit to .lamaica, 

 delivered an interesting lecture on the .subject of ' .Scale 

 Insects ' to members of the .lamaica Institute. The lecturer 

 gave a brief history of the research work carried on in the 

 past which has led up to our present knowledge of this group 

 of insects : investigators have been busy in the United States, 

 France, Italy, England, etc., but the first monograph on the 

 scale in.sects was published so recently as 1877. The study 

 of the West Indian forms of these in.sects was commenced by 

 Mr. T. H. D. (Jockerell, a former curator of the .Jamaica 

 Institute. Although much good work relating to the 

 economic .side of the question is now in progress in many 

 parts of the world, all countries were largely indented to the 

 Bureau of Entomology of the U. S. Department of .Agriculture 

 for the elaborate and extensive experiments winch the 

 Bureau have established. 



