129 



crop. No parasitic enemy or other natural check has been 

 observed. 



The common preventive measure among the Japanese growers 

 is to cover the young melons as soon as they set with a piece of 

 gunny-sack, paper or some straw. When the melons have out- 

 grown the protection of this covering they are usually beyond 

 the danger of an attack by the fly. It requires constant attention 

 to cover the newly set melons before they are visited by the over- 

 industrious fly. Protection could be secured by hand-pollinating 

 the flowers and covering them before the fruit is formed. There is 

 a difference in the resistance of the different varieties of melons. 

 The harder skinned varieties are less subject to an attack and it 

 is well to select a hard skinned melon for planting in this coun- 

 try, even at a sacrifice of quality. Frecjuent cultivation around 

 the plants close up to and among the vines will destroy many 

 of the flies by covering the pupae in the soil to a depth which 

 will not permit them to gain the surface on reaching the adult 

 stage. 



All infested melons and vines should be collected regularly 

 throughout the growth of the crop and either burned or buried. 

 Burning is the most effective, but if the acreage is large, holes 

 can be dug at convenient distances throughout the field and a 

 man be directed to go through the field at intervals of not less 

 than five or six days, collect all infested melons and vines, throw 

 them into the nearest hole and cover to a depth of several inches. 

 Alnmdant irrigation should not be practiced since a succulent 

 growth favors infection, especially to the vines. 



After harvesting a crop the partly decayed melons and vines 

 should not be left in the field to act as a breeding place for 

 countless numbers of this pest, as is the custom. The writer 

 has observed abandoned fields swarming with the melon-fly 

 which, deprived of their food in these places, seek the products 

 they infest in the surrounding district. 



