JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ffiSEARCH 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Vol. Ill Washington, D. C, February 15, 1915 



No. 5 



LIFE HISTORY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY 

 FROM THE STANDPOINT OF PARASITE INTRODUC- 

 TION 



By E. A. Back, Entomological Assiitanl, and C. E. Pemberto.v, Scientific Assistant, 

 Mediterranean Fruit-Fly Investigations, Bureau of Entomology 



INTRODUCTION 



The ease with which those parasites of the Mediterranean fruit fly 

 (Ceratitis capitata Wied.) that are capable of living several months in 

 glass tubes, if receiving intelligent care, can be introduced from western 

 Africa into Hawaii has been most admirably demonstrated by Dr. F. 

 Silvestri, who was engaged by the Hawaiian Board of Agriculture and 

 Forestry to search western Africa for parasites that might be of value in 

 checking the ravages of the fruit fly in Hawaii.' While Dr. Silvestri 

 succeeded in introducing parasites at Honolulu, three species of which 

 (Galesus silvestrii Kieffer, Dirhinus gifjardii Silvestri, and Opius humilis 

 Silvestri) have since been reared and liberated in large numbers by the 

 Hawaiian Board of Agriculture and Forestry, he failed to introduce 

 Tetrastichus gifjardii, which, in his opinion, gives greater promise as a 

 parasite in Hawaii than any of the other species introduced. He ascribes 

 his failure to introduce this parasite to its short life and its habit of 

 ovipositing in either the egg or the young larvae of the fruit fly. On his 

 trip of exploration, which necessitated many stops and side trips. Dr. 

 Silvestri could not be hampered in his movements by such continuous 

 rearings of the host insect as must be undertaken by one carrjang to so 

 great a distance this or other short-lived parasites breeding under similar 

 conditions. During the period of a little more than a year in which the 

 writers have been rearing fruit flies in large numbers they have developed 

 certain extremely simple methods for rearing Ceratitis capitata. These 

 result in saving much time and in preventing many failures in connec- 

 tion with the effort to introduce parasites of fruit flies from western 

 Africa into the Hawaiian Islands, as they provide a means of keeping on 

 hand the various stages of the fruit fly for the rearing of new generations 

 of parasites. 



* For a full account of this expedition, ste Silvestri, F. Viaggio in Africa per cercare parassiti di mosche 

 dci frutti. 164 p., 6g fig. Portici. 1913. (Bol. Lab. Zool. Gen. c Agr., R. Scuola Sup, Agr. Portici.. v. 8, 

 1914.). For English edition, see Report of an Expedition to Africa in Search of the Natural Enemies of 

 Fruit Flics (Trypaneidae) with Descriptions, Ob-servations. and Biological Notes. 176 p, 24 pi. Honolulu, 

 1914. (Bui. Hawaii Bd. Agr. and Forestry, no. 3.) 



Journal of Agricultural Research. 

 Dept. of AgTlcuUurc. Washington, D. C. 



(363) 



Vol. III. No. s 

 Feb. IS, 191S 

 K-is 



BOTANIC* 



