82 INSECTS AND MAN 



It is small consolation to the Americans to know that 

 most of their worst pests have been accidentally introduced, 

 and so effectually have they taken the lesson to heart, that 

 the most stringent quarantine regulations are enforced to 

 prevent the introduction of other world-famous, or, better, 

 notorious insect pests, and against none are these regulations 

 more earnestly directed than the Mediterranean fruit fly, 

 Geratitis capitata. This insect is one of a number of two- 

 winged flies, or Diptera, which prefer fresh fruit to a diet 

 of decaying vegetable matter, or of fresh or putrid animal 

 substances. Its original home is probably Spain, though it 

 was first recorded in 1826, when it was brought to London, 

 in the larval stage, in some oranges from Azores. Though 

 widely distributed, being found in the Mediterranean 

 regions, including Malta ; in the Azores, Canary Islands, 

 Natal, Cape of Good Hope, Bermuda, Australia, the 

 Hawaiian Islands, China and Brazil, it is very rare in 

 England, and as yet unknown in the United States. The 

 English specimens have probably all been brought into 

 the country in foreign fruit. The insect is catholic in its 

 tastes, such diversified fruits as peaches, limes, figs, mangos, 

 avocado pears, guavas, and tropical almonds being relished 

 by the larvae. In Europe, at any rate, peaches, nectarines, 

 and apricots appear to be the favoured plants, so much so 

 that their cultivation has been abandoned in Spain, solely 

 on account of the ravages of this fly. 



The destructive stage of this insect occurs, as is so often 

 the case, from the time of the hatching to the pupation of 

 the larvae. The female fly is furnished with a long, needle- 

 like ovipositor, with which she pierces the fruit, thus 

 making a small chamber within which she lays eggs, vary- 

 ing in number from one to over forty. Sometimes the 

 fruits are " stung " by the ovipositor, without the deposition 

 of eggs, with what object is unknown. After oviposition, 

 the mother fly secretes, over the eggs, a substance having 

 the property of converting the surrounding tissues of the 



