﻿THE MEXICAN ORANGE MAGGOT 323 



time, apparently selecting a favorable spot in which to deposit her eggs. This 

 spot is usually found near the flower end, but sometimes on some other 

 part of the fruit. When the right spot has been selected the fly bends 

 down its long tube-like abdomen and forces it into the outside skin of the 

 fruit and there deposits some of her eggs. When this has been completed 

 she flies ofif to another orange to repeat the process. One female may infect 

 anywhere from four to ten oranges or mangoes and often more guavas. 



The eggs hatch after a certain number of days, varying with the tem- 

 perature. The entire injury is done by the larvje or maggots which eat their 

 way through the pulp and inner tissues of the fruit, reducing that part of the 

 truit to a soft pulpy mass which soon decays and ruins the rest of the fruit 

 tissue. Tn the orange the worm often confines its eating, for a time at least, 

 to tlu- inner pulp of the skin ; after that it wjorks its way on into the juicy 

 part and passes the rest of its existence immersed more or less in the fruit 

 li(|uids. The mango has a much thinner skin and therefore the boring is 

 almost entirely in the inner fruit tissues. The presence of the worm in the 

 mango is much more easily detected from the outside than in the orange, 

 for the boring in the former always makes a soft spot while in the latter it may 



Figure 120. 

 Larva, pupa and fly of Anastropliu ludens. (Copied t'vom Report of Cal. Horti- 

 cultural Commission.) 



or it may not. The maggot attains a length of from one-third to one-half 

 of an inch and usually lives at least two weeks and often more before 

 passing into the pupal stage. Four to six worms living that long in one 

 orange work great ha'Voc, rendering the fruit entirely useless. Before the 

 maggots are ready for their pupation the fruit is usually so decayed that it 

 falls to the ground. When maturity is reached the larvae leave the rotten fruit 

 and become pupse either between the fruit and the ground or else slightly 

 under the surface of the ground. I found by digging down in several places 

 that the average depth to which the worm penetrates the earth before pupating 

 is lietween one-f|uarter and one-half of an inch, although many were found at 



