1912] Paine — The Yellow Currani Fly or Gooseberry Fruit Fly 141 



underneath the skin, the ovipositor being worked back and forth 

 with a pumping movement accompanied by a constant and rapid 

 movement of the mouth-parts. The result of an attack upon a 

 berry is at first visible only upon close examination, but in a few 

 days the area about the egg turns brown and makes a very con- 

 spicuous spot with dark edges as may be seen in Plate II, fig. 3. 

 These spots are also visible in Plate 10. 



In the vicinity of Stanford University egg laying continued 

 throughout the mouth of April and till about the middle of May. 

 By that time scarcely a currant or gooseberry could be found that 

 had not been badly affected. 



The Larva and Its Development. 



After a period of incubation lasting, in the case of specimens 

 taken into the laboratory, for eleven days, the minute white larva 

 or maggot hatches and begins to burrow in the pulp, often 

 following a winding path for some little distance before making 

 its way into a seed. These twisting burrows may often be ob- 

 served from the exterior. The larva is white, its footless body 

 consisting of about thirteen segments. Protruding from the 

 mouth are two conspicuous black chitinous hooks, the rasping 

 organs, by means of which it gnaws its way through the fruit. 

 This maggot when mature measures about seven millimeters in 

 length. As it continues feasting upon the juicy fruit, its quarters 

 within the seed become cramped, and it then leaves the seed to 

 feed upon the surrounding tissue. The presence of the larva 

 causes the berries to ripen and drop prematurely; they turn red, 

 with unsightly black blotches caused by the decaying matter 

 within the fruit. As soon as the fruit drops, the larvae, if full 

 grown, issue and make their way into the ground. Often, how- 

 ever, they have not attained their full size, in which case they 

 remain within the fallen fruit until mature. According to some 

 observers the larvae may leave the berries before the latter drop 

 to the ground; this however, was not observed by me. 



Although nearly all of the currants had several eggs deposited 

 in them, in no instance was more than one mature larva found in a 

 berry; in one case one half-grown and one small maggot were 

 discovered in the same fruit. 



