83 



This is the small, reddish fruit-fly in which the nude areas on the shoulders 

 sides of thorax, and scutellum are so pale that they might be called white 

 with a narrow, pale stripe of the same colour on either side of the thorax, 

 above the base of the wings. 



The Three-striped Fruit Fly. 

 Dacus diversuSj Coquillet. 



(Proc. Ent, Soc. Washington, vol. VI, No. 3, pp. 139, 140, 1904.) 



" Head and its appendages yellow, base of proboscis brownish ; face of the 

 male unmarked, that of the female with a transverse black fascia a short 

 distance above the oral border, front with a central brown spot, and a row 

 of three brown dots along each eye ; vertex with a narrow black fascia 

 produced forward in the middle, so as to include the lowest ocellus ; occiput 

 with a brown vitta on either side of the centre, the two connected at their 

 upper ends by a brown fascia; antennae slightly longer than the face; arista 

 bare. Body black, the following markings yellow : humeral callosities, a short 

 streak in centre of mesonotum, a vitta situated a short distance above each 

 lateral margin of the mesonotum, extending from the suture to the hind 

 margin ; a fascia extending from the front of each of these vittse to the 

 upper part of the sternopleura ; the prosternum largely, the scutellum, a large 

 spot on either side of the metanotum, and including the hypopleura, the hind 

 margins of the abdominal segments, a very narrow on the fourth, and the 

 base of the ovipositor ; mesonotum with a median pair of grey pruinose vittae, 

 which extend from the front end to a short distance beyond the suture ; 

 abdomen devoid of black bristles and of long black hairs; ovipositor 

 depressed, slightly longer than the fourth and fifth abdominal segments 

 taken together. Legs of male almost wholly yellow, those of the female 

 yellow, the apices of the femora and whole of the tibiae black, apices of tarsi 

 brownish. Wings hyaline, base of the marginal cell brownish, costa narrowly 

 bordered with brown from apex to auxiliary vein to a point midway between 

 apices of the third and fourth veins, scarcely widening in its apical portion, 

 anal cell filled with brown, which colour encroaches somewhat on the third 

 posterior cell. Length, 4 to 5 mm. 



" Habitat, Colombo, Ceylon, and Bangalore, India." 



He had a series of five male and three female flies, that were bred from 

 maggots infesting oranges. 



This is one of the species that Mr. Hewlett and I collected at Pusa flying 

 about the melon patches, and again at Bangalore in several mango planta- 

 tions ; and though a few were attracted by the citronella oil, most of them 

 were caught on the wing. 



It appears to be a very distinct species, differing from Dacus ferrugineuts 

 in being somewhat smaller in size, and has white or pale yellow line down 

 the centre of the thorax, and the darker and more regular coloration of the 

 abdomen. It differs from Dacus persicce in being larger, and with the black 

 thorax and dorsal stripe on the thorax. The three flies enumerated seem to 

 be the three common species of fruit-flies that infest mangoes, oranges, guavas, 

 and peaches, and have very similar habits, so that they may be checked and 

 destroyed in the same manner. 



