1914] Melon Fly, Dacus cucurbitae. 179 
II. NATIVE HOME. 
Some difference of opinion exists as to the native home of 
the melon fly. Muir (5, p. 17) “found that India was its original 
home’ and later on, Froggatt’s (5, p. 17) investigations showed 
that the melon fly was widely distributed over India and also 
Ceylon. Perkins (10, p. 36) believes “its true home is no doubt 
in China or Japan.’”’ In a map showing the fruit fly regions 
with steamship connections to California, Compere (2, p. 728) 
records the danger of introducing the pest into that state from 
the following sea ports: Hawaiian Islands, Timor, Manila, 
Nagasaki, Hongkong, India and Singapore. Compere claims 
that this pest is rarely found in the Philippine Islands and he 
informed the writers that the melon fly was originally native 
of these islands. It was imported from one of the above men- 
tioned countries into the Hawaiian Islands about the year 1897. 

Text Fig. 2. Wing of melon fly. (After Froggatt). 
III. DESCRIPTION OF MELON FLY. 
The melon fly is wasp-like in its general shape and behavior 
and resembles a hornet (Polistes) somewhat in color but is less 
than half as large. The head is yellow in color; the thorax 
is reddish yellow marked with a number of light yellow areas 
and the abdomen is yellow on the first two segments and red- 
dish-yellow on the others. At the base of the second, abdom- 
inal segment is a transverse black line, which unites with a 
black, dorsal, median line on the next three segments. A 
lateral, brown spot is usually present on the fourth and fifth 
segments. The transparent wings are marked with brown 
bands. A brown band extends along the front margin of each 
wing and ends in a large spot at the apex; another brown band 
extends along a fold of the wing near the body; between the 
distal ends of these bands is a transverse marking (Text fig. 2). 
The legs are light yellow in color. 
