101 



M. Cattoire. who had been paymaster of the troops in Mauritius, had 

 noticed orange* infested with ma^ots in the orange groves of that island. 

 He wrote to Macleay and sent him a sptvim -n. which was, unfortunately, a 

 female, in which the specific characters were not so easily defined. This 

 Macleay considered identical with his species ; and misled probably by second- 

 hand observations, he said the fly deposited her eggs in the ovary of the 

 orange flowers, and that thy larvae developed with the fruit. This species 

 w a- afterwards defined by Guerin, who gave it specific rank as Ceratitis 

 cattoirei. 



The Marquis de Breine, in 1842, described specimens which he obtained 

 from oranges at Malaga, southern Spain, and which he considered distinct 

 from Macleay's species, under the name of Ceratilis hispanica, and figured both 

 species in colours. Though there are some slight differences, it is now fairly 

 evident that de Breme's species is identical with that of Macleay and 

 Wiedemann. 



The original home of Ceratitis capitata is, probably, Spain, one of the 

 great homes of the orange, and from which, at -the present time, a great 

 quantity come into the British markets. From there it was carried to the 

 Azores and the orange-growing islands of that region at a very early date. 

 It extends right round the Mediterranean ; it is found in the south of France, 

 and there are several instances of slight outbreaks close to Paris ; but it has 

 never become established in such northern latitudes. In England, there are 

 specimens in the Oxford Museum. These were recorded by Westwood in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle, 1848, "captured in Thames-street, London, 1848," 

 and others were bred from maggots in imported oranges. It is plentiful in 

 Valencia and Malaga ; at times it destroys a great quantity of oranges in the 

 latter tow r n towards the end of the season. 



It is found in southern Italy, at Calabria, and is recorded as a serious pest 

 at times. It is well known in Sicily, where a number of reports have been 

 published concerning its depredations, and it is locally known as la mosco 

 delle a ranee. In 1879-80 it did a great deal of damage in the neighbourhood 

 of Messina, and also again in l. Sv> _'. 



I could obtain no record of it in the Greek Archipelago, nor did I find it 

 in the markets of Turkey ; hut in Malta it was recorded, according to 

 Henslow, as a pest in 1875. In the Gardeners' Chronicle, 1890, he stated 

 that it had been a serious pest for the preceding three years upon mandarin 

 oranges, and he noticed that the flies were always most numerous in the hot, 

 dry seasons, and particularly scaro- in col ), wet c: 



In 1889 a committee was a} (pointed by the Governor of Malta to draw up 

 a report on the pest, and on the best methods of dealing with it. They recom- 

 mended that all fruit infested should be collected and destroyed, and suggested 

 strewing the surface of the ground with 1 part of sulphate of iron to 24 parts 

 of sand, the ground to be subsequently watered. 



I have been unable to obtain any data of how the pest is controlled at the 

 present time in Malta. 



It was introduced into southern Africa many years ago, and Miss Ormerod, 

 in her il Observations on some injurious insects of South Africa," gives an 

 account of the damage it does at the Cape. In Natal and some of the other 

 African States several native species of Ceratitis have been described as pests 

 that have turned their attention to cultivated fruits ; but Fuller has lately 

 recorded the appearance of this species in the Natal orchards in the Fourth 



