320 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 10 



In order to con\dnce the most skeptical that the Mediterranean 

 fruit-fly was bred from bananas by Kirk, of New Zealand, I shall 

 pubhsh the following sentences from a letter written March 5, 1913, 

 by Kirk to me on this subject: "The Mediterranean fly which is 

 mentioned in my reports as having been obtained from bananas 

 and pineapples were bred from maggots obtained from imported 

 fruit of those varieties. I cannot now state positively the variety of 

 banana. ..." 



Back and Pemberton (1, p. 802) write, "French, of Victoria, Aus- 

 tralia, states that adults of the pest were reared from bananas {Musa 

 sp.) exported from Queensland, Australia, and that on many occasions 

 he has proved eggs to have been deposited in green bananas before 

 shipment from Queensland to Melbourne. Both Kirk and French are 

 aware that the Queensland fruit-fly {Dacus tryoni) is a pest of bananas 

 grown in Queensland and that confusion between the two fruit-flies 

 might occur if observations were made by untrained inspectors." 



The following quotation shows that French (2, p. 4) and- his son con- 

 ducted the breeding experiments of the Mediterranean fruit-fl}^ from 

 bananas on one occasion at least: "The following is an account of 

 some experiments, dealing with the Mediterranean fly, which were 

 carried out by the Assistant Entomologist (Mr. C. French, jun.) and 

 myself during 1906." 



"The larvae of this fly were found in bananas imported from Queens- 

 land on the 14th August, and on being placed in the breeding jars 

 pupated on the 20th August; the perfect insects emerged on the 4th 

 October and lived for several weeks, water, with a little sugar added, 

 being the food placed at their disposal." 



In the Hawaiian Islands certain varieties of bananas are not immune 

 from the attacks of the Mediterranean fruit-fly under natural condi- 

 tions. Mr. J. C. Bridwell, formerly in connection with the Hawaiian 

 Board of Agriculture, bred the Mediterranean fruit-fly from ripe 

 bananas of the Popoulu variety and from a green Moa variety. The 

 Moa variety, however, was mature and about to turn yellow and in 

 addition, the peel was so cracked that the pulp was well exposed 

 (1, pp. 795-6). 



Bibliography 



(1) Back, E. A. and Pemberton, C. E., 1916. Banana as a Host Fruit of the 



Mediterranean Fruit-fly. Jour. Agr. Research, V, No. 17, pp. 793-804. 



(2) French, C, 1907. Fruit-flies. Dept. Agr. Intell. South Australia, Bui. No. 24, 



pp. 1-14. 



(3) Kirk, T. W., 1909. Fruit-flies. New Zealand Dept. Agr. Div. Biol, Bui. 22, 



pp. 1-18. 



(4) Severin, H. H. p., -and Hartung, W. J., 1912. Will the Mediterranean Fruit- 



fly (Ceratitis capitata Wied.) Breed in Bananas under Artificial and Field 

 Conditions? Mon. Bui. State Com. Hort. Cal. I, No. 9, pp. 566-9. 



