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THE MELON -FLY 



(Ducks cuciirbitac C>)(|uillctl.) 



By D. L. Van Dine, 



Entomologist, Ignited States Agricultural Experiment Station, 



Honolulu. 



Last season's crop of melons probably exceeded any previous 

 crop since the advent of the pest of cucurbits known common- 

 ly as the "melon-fly." The reason for this is undoubtedly the 

 persistance of the Japanese growers in protecting their melons 

 from the flies at, or immediately after, the setting of the fruit. 

 The low consideration at which these people place their time 

 and effort (when working for themselves), enabled them to 

 take the preventive measures and still receive, what is to them, 

 a satisfying remuneration. In so far as a garden crop of melons, 

 cucumbers, or related products are concerned, the writer be- 

 lieves that a householder can by the necessary precautions pro- 

 duce without prohibitive difficulty, sufficient for his own table. 

 As an agricultural venture on a field basis, it is a question only 

 to be answered by the attempt, taking into consideration the 

 competition of the oriental growers. 



This dipterous enemy of cucurbits belongs to the family 

 Trypetidae and was described as new to science by Mr. D. W. 

 Coquillett, of the Bureau of Entomology, United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, in the spring of 1899, from specimens bred 

 in Honolulu by Mr. Geo. Compere, from larvae living in green 

 cucumbers. 



The food-plants are, locally, all the members of the plant 

 family Cucurbitacae (melons, cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, 

 etc., including a wild cucurbit. Sycos sp.) ; pods of string beans; 

 tomatoes ; and the fly has been reported as infesting ripe fallen 

 mangoes and the fruit of the papaya. 



The life-history, covering, a period of about three weeks, is 

 as follows : The female by means of her strong ovipositor, 

 pierces the epidermis of the melon, or other fruit, and prepares 

 just beneath in the tissue, an egg-chamber into which through 

 the one incision are deposited from fifteen to twenty eggs. 

 One fly is probably responsible for at least several such clusters. 



