THE KNTOMOLOGIST. 185 



raultiplicite d'un diptere du merae sous-genre (Tephritis) qui 

 y depose ses oeufs." Mr. MacLeay wrote to M. Cattoire, 

 formerly paymaster of the French forces in the Mauritius, 

 and, through the kindness of that gentleman, received a 

 female specimen of a dipteron almost identical with that 

 under consideration, and with it the following important 

 information, " Get insecte depose sa larve dans I'ovaire de la 

 fleur d'oranges, et en detruit le fruit." Mr. MacLeay dissents 

 from this statement, saying, " It is almost impossible to believe, 

 on examining a decayed orange from St. Michael's, that the 

 parent fly deposited its egg in the flower and not in the fruit, 

 as the original puncture remains visible in the centre of the 

 soft part of the rind, and is the invariable proof of a maggot 

 being the cause of the decay of the orange." It is desirable 

 to point out, although the distinction may be immaterial, 

 that Latreille mentions only the lime, M. Cattoire only the 

 orange. "I am induced," says Mr. MacLeay, in con- 

 tinuation, " to place confidence in M. Latreille's statement 

 that the parent insect deposits its egg in the fruit, because in 

 like manner this is obvious from the appearance of the 

 infected St. Michael oranges, which always exhibit the punc- 

 ture by which the fly inserted its destructive offspring. 

 Whenever this puncture appears in an orange, we may be 

 sure, I repeat, that there is a worm concealed in the inte- 

 rior." And again : — " I shall now describe more particularly 

 the appearance of an infected orange, which may be at once 

 known by a greater or less portion of its rind being withered, 

 and showing evident symptoms of decay, in having lost its 

 firm consistency and texture, and in having changed the 

 usual brilliancy of its colour for an opaque and dull olive- 

 yellow. The size of this withered and discoloured spot must 

 of course, in a great measure, depend on the havoc com- 

 mitted in the orange by the concealed insect. While, how- 

 ever, the fly is in its larva state, this spot appears to vary 

 from a space that might be covered by a sixpence, to one 

 that might be covered with half-a-crown. In the centre we 

 may perceive a small white orifice, which is the puncture of 

 the parent insect, and which in general may be distinguished 

 with ease from the orifice made by the larva, previous to 

 metamorphosis, by a certain whiteness of the sides, which 

 appears to result from mould, or vegetable of that nature." 



