SUSCEPTIBILITY OF CITROUS FRUITS TO THE ATTACK 

 OF THE MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY 



By E. A. Back, Entomological Assistant, and C. E. Pemberton, Scientific Assistant, 

 Mediterranean Fruit-Fly Investigations, Bureau of Entomology 



INTRODUCTION 



Since the discovery in 1910 that the Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis 

 capitata Wied.) had become established in the Hawaiian Islands, the fruit 

 growers, and especially the citrous fruit growers, of the mainland States 

 have increasingly feared that this dreaded pest would be able to gain 

 access to the mainland on some one of the many ships plying between 

 Honolulu and the Pacific coast and would appear in the citrous orchards 

 of California and Florida. In addition to this danger from the Pacific, 

 there have been similar fears regarding imported fruits from the Bermudas 

 and the Mediterranean regions. While investigations carried on by the 

 Federal Horticultural Board have shown that the opportunity for entry 

 and establishment of the fly from these trans-Atlantic countries is verv 

 slight, there remains the ever-present danger that sooner or later this 

 pest will reach the mainland from the Pacific, in spite of the increasingly 

 rigid quarantine of Hawaiian host fruits. It is therefore opportune to 

 record data secured in the Hawaiian Islands which tend to show that even 

 if this fruit fly should obtain a foothold in the warmer portions of the 

 United States, it probably would not be the serious pest to citrous fruits 

 that previously published literature would indicate. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW 



This literature has been full of references to the havoc caused to citrous 

 fruits by the Mediterranean fruit fly. The first published reference is 

 by Latreille, who states (181 7) ' on the authority of Cattoire that the 

 colonists of Mauritius could with difficulty obtain citrous fruits sound at 

 maturity, on account of the attacks of a dipterous insect that deposited 

 eggs in the fruit. MacLeay (1829) writes of this pest as an insect very 

 destructive to oranges and states that fully one-third of the oranges arriv- 

 ing in London from the Azores were in a decayed condition as a result of 

 the attacks of this pest. He also secured the insect from citrous fruits in 

 Madeira and the Cape Verde Islands. F. DeBreme (1842) speaks of this 

 fruit fly as a pest to oranges near Malaga, Spain; and Westwood (1848), 

 under the caption "The Orange Fly," mentions securing specimens from 



' Bibliographic citations in parentheses refer to " Literature dted." p. 330. 



Journal of Agricultural Research. Vol. III. No. 4 



Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. Jan. 15. 1915 



K-13 



(3") 



