CERA.TITIS CITRIPERDA. 51 



"Enclosed please find a specimen of a fly, which has 

 become a most serious pest to our fruit-growers and most 

 objectionable to our fruit-eaters. 



" In some districts last year, Albany amongst the 

 rest, four-fifths of our peaches, apricots, figs, and plums 

 were uneatable. 



" The perfect insect may be seen flying about very 

 swiftly, and depositing some half-dozen eggs in a fruit. 

 . " They do not deposit their eggs till the fruit is 

 turning ripe that is, getting sweet. The maggots are 

 never found in green apricots used for making pies, 

 neither are they found in sour apples. 



" The season 1886-87 was remarkable for the freedom 

 of the fruit from maggots. The oranges at Uitenhage 

 in October and November, 1886, were infested and. 

 maggotty, but the apricots and peaches which came 

 ripe in December and January were comparatively free. 

 My idea was that the mild weather with spring rain 

 brought out the flies, but, there being no other ripe fruit 

 than oranges, the maggots did not come to flies in the 

 usual way. Oranges in our early spring time are at the 

 best, being then thoroughly ripe and lusciously sweet. 



"The fly and three cocoons sent were obtained from 

 an infested peach ; there were six maggots ; two flies 

 came out of the cocoons one escaped, and one of the 

 larvae did not become a pupa. The other three cocoons 

 are enclosed." .... " It is more injurious than the 

 Codlin Moth, or in fact any other fruit destroyer." 



" I have not been able to make out to my satisfaction 

 the way in which the flies are perpetuated from year to 

 year, whether they hybernate like house-flies, or 

 whether they lie dormant in the cocoons." J. 13. H. 



I had the advantage of being able to show Mr. Hellier's 

 specimens to Prof. J. 0. Westwood, Life President of our 

 Royal Entomological Society, who has himself personally 

 studied the habits of this fly as far as can be done from 

 imported specimens. He identified the imago as without 

 doubt a male specimen of the Ceratitis citriperda, and 

 drew my attention to the presence of the peculiar slender 



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