68 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 6 



it in its hold on the attention of our people. States like New Jersey 

 in which the urban population is a very large part of the whole and in 

 which farming land is being rapidly transformed into suburban resi- 

 dence property, medical entomology is particularly needed. 



If there is no further discussion I will now pass the chairmanship 

 over to President W. D. Hunter. 



President W. D. Hunter: The first paper of this session will be 

 presented by Mr. Henry H. P. Severin on ''The Mediterranean Fruit 

 Fly." 



PRECAUTIONS TAKEN AND THE DANGER OF INTRODUC- 

 ING THE MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY (CERATITIS 

 CAPITATA WIED.) INTO THE UNITED STATES 



Henry H. P. Severin, Honorary Fellow, University of Wisconsin 



Cargo: The chief dangers of introducing the Mediterranean fruit 

 fly into the United States is through ships carrying cargo, ship stores, 

 export fruit and baggage into our coast ports. With such a large 

 coast line as we have on the western boundary of the United States 

 dotted with harbors, it is interesting to know what precautions are 

 taken to keep this serious pest out of California, Oregon and Wash- 

 ington. On the California coast every ship coming from a foreign 

 port must first enter one of the five ports of entry, and report to the 

 United States Customs. Each ship, upon its arrival at one of these 

 ports of entry, finds in waiting, one or more horticultural quarantine 

 officers who together with the customs' men examine the horticultural 

 products on board and the baggage of the passengers. Each vessel 

 upon its arrival, must furnish a manifest, itemizing all horticultural 

 products carried in the vessel as freight and indicating the nature, 

 extent and origin of such material. The inspector having this infor- 

 mation some time in advance of the actual landing of such imports, 

 can take proper precautions for their inspection, treatment and final 

 disposition. Practically the only horticultural imports arriving from 

 Honolulu to the ports of entry are pineapples, bananas and root crops, 

 all other crops being quarantined against under the Plant Quarantine 

 Act (Quarantine Notice No. 2). 



One Californian, after having studied the fruit fly situation in the 

 Hawaiian Islands on returning to San Francisco, observed that the 

 steamer on which he was traveling docked just a half hour later than 

 another which came from the Orient. He wondered how three (now 

 six) horticultural quarantine officers could search a steamer thoroughly 



