340 INJURIOUS AND BENEFICIAL INSKCTS OF CALIFORNIA. 



THE SPOTTED ROOT FLY ;| 

 Euxesta notata Wiedemann (Family Ortalidae) 



Description. — The flies are slightly over | inch long, beautiful, 

 metallic-green in color with eyes dark brown. The wings are trans- 

 parent with a distinct black spot near the middle of the front margin 

 and a similar spot near the tip of each. The maggots vary from white 

 to dusky brown, the blunt end being often darker than the rest of the 

 body. They are about £ inch long when fully matured. The puparia 

 are dark brown, rather slender-oval and about T % inch long. 



Life History. — The eggs are usually laid in the tissues of injured 

 or damaged fruits and vegetables, and while the maggots work prin- 

 cipally upon such tissues they are often found in sound and living por- 

 tions and occasionally in apparently uninjured fruits. The pupa? are 

 found in the decayed hosts or in the soil. Due to the peculiar habits 

 of the larva>, they have often been mistaken for the maggots of the true 

 fruit flies of the family Trypetidce and have been the occasion of great 

 alarm. 



Nature of Work. — The maggots work within the roots and fruits, 

 usually when they are in the process of decay. It is not a pest of 

 healthy tissues. 



Distribution. — This fly occurs quite commonly throughout the State, 

 but is more abundant in the warmer sections of the central and southern 

 parts. 



Food Plants. — This species caused considerable alarm some years 

 ago, when it was found working upon muskmelons in Tulare County, 

 but investigation showed that only the injured or decayed melons were 

 attacked. No less anxiety was aroused in the summer of 1912, when 

 maggots were found in apparently sound oranges in Los Angeles 

 County, but they also proved to be of this harmless fly. According to 

 Professor J. M. Aldrich, the maggots are known to attack onions, osage 

 orange, cotton bolls, sumach fruits, berries of horse nettle (Solanum 

 carolinense) and decaying apples. The roots of loco weed (Astragalus 

 mollissimus) , sugar beets and cabbage are also hosts. 



Control. — Remedies are not necessary for this fly, as it is not a pest. 



TRYPETID^ (Family) 



FRUIT FLIES 



The members of this family are numerous, quite small, and usually 

 have prettily marked wings. The abdomen has four or five segments. 

 The male genitalia are little exposed, while the ovipositors of the 

 females are more or less projecting. The maggots live in fruit, vege- 

 tables and steins of the plants, entirely ruining the hosts in the former 

 cases and producing galls in the latter. This family is known the 

 world over because of the many serious fruit flies which belong to it 

 ami which are so serious to fruits. The Mediterranean fruit fly, 

 Mexican orange maggot, melon maggot, olive fruit fly, railroad worm 

 of the apple, cherry fruit fly. and the currant or gooseberry fruit fly 

 are among the members of the family. 



his fly was listed under the common name of cantaloupe fly in first edition. 



