THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 653 



Crab Apples. 



These should be carefully assorted as to varieties, making one grade 

 only, keeping out all insect pests, worm holes, sting, scale, misshapen 

 and blemished fruit. Put up in apple boxes ; line the box ; fill in gently, 

 so as to prevent bruising. 



Lady Apples. 



These should be packed in half boxes, boxes lined, remembering that 

 the more attractive the better the sale. Make only one grade, keeping 

 out all insect pests, worm holes, sting, scale, misshapen and blemished 

 fruit. 



A CONSTANT MENACE. 



By Frederick Maskew, Chief Deputy Quarantine Officer. 



Among many other articles of freight, the Steamship Ventura brought 

 to San Francisco from Honolulu a crate of fresh pineapples consigned 

 to R. I. Lillie, Stewart Hotel, San Francisco. In common with all 

 importations of horticultural products this crate and its contents were 

 inspected and as a result forty live Spenophorus rhahdocnemis ohscurus 

 Boisd., the Hawaiian sugar-cane borer, were found in the package. 

 These insects were fully one half inch long, and of several shades of 

 rich brown in color, which made them easy of detection. The package, 

 its contents and the weevils were promptly destroyed. 



It is not the purpose of this article to detail the biology of this pest 

 or to speculate on whether it might have adapted itself to host plants 

 other than the sugar cane had it passed into this State undetected, but 

 rather to point out that every vessel, every person, every automobile, 

 box, crate, bundle, sack and package arriving from Hawaiian ports is 

 a potential danger to the horticultural interests of California. 



There is no record extant of this species of weevil attacking pine- 

 apples, and it is our opinion that this crate of pineapples had been 

 placed after packing in some location where these insects occurred and 

 the forty specimens we captured had entered the crate as a place of 

 hiding. There is no record of the Mediterranean fruit fly infesting 

 pineapples in Hawaiian territory, but if the packing is done, or the 

 material used in packing is stored, or the packed cases are stored in the 

 vicinity of any material infested with this pest, the larvae on seeking a 

 place to pupate are just as likely to wriggle themselves in the crevices of 

 the crates as did the specimens of weevils we found. All pineapples 

 destined for California points are subjected to a fumigation at San 

 Francisco, with a strength of gas fully three times as great as that 

 used on the citrus trees in California before they are released from 

 the dock, but I doubt if even that strength would destroy the Medi- 

 terranean fruit fly in its pupal stage if any were secreted in the 

 crevices of the crates. A box of soap purchased in a Chinese store in 

 Honolulu, where it has laid in close contiguity to a sack of peppers 

 infested with the maggots of the fruit fly, may contain pupae of this 

 pest, and is just as likely to bring the fly over in safety as a specimen 

 of fruit infested with the larva. Here at quarantine in San Francisco 

 Vv^e have found the pupa of the Mediterranean fly attached to the seams 



