FRUIT FLIES 29 



CHAPTER LXXII. 



FRUIT FLIES. 



THE MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY. 

 Halterophora capita la. Wiedmann. {Diptera. ) 



This terrible scourge of the fruit grower is becoming 

 but too familiar in Victoria, the larvae having been found 

 in peaches, pears, quinces, apricots, plums, nectarines, 

 guavas, oranges, lemons, apples, citrons, loquats, man- 

 goes, pumpkins, bananas, tomatoes, pineapples and 

 persimmons ; so that it will easily be seen that hardly 

 any fruit can be said to be exempt from its attacks, 

 and of all the fruit grower's enemies the fruit fly is 

 undoubtedly the worst. 



As this work is written especially for the growers, 

 technical terms and descriptions are avoided where at all 

 possible, so that the colored plate drawn from nature 

 will be the more easily understood. Unfortunately for 

 Victoria, we are now having a very practical experience 

 of this pest. Numerous cases have occurred, so far 

 most of them in private gardens in the northern districts 

 of our State. The danger has, we hope, been grappled 

 with, and the pest at least partially stamped out by 

 the adoption of drastic measures. 



One great danger lies in the fact that many well- 

 intentioned persons suppose, or profess to suppose, that 

 fruit flies will neither live nor thrive in Victoria. This 

 is a most mischievous, as well as a dangerous, theory, as 

 the writer knows from actual experience that in Victoria 

 the larvae and also the flies will live for weeks exposed 

 to the air by day and night, during both summer and 

 winter; and, as showing the vitality of the larvae, these 

 have been kept by Mr. Fuller, Government Entomologist 

 of Natal, for over three weeks in a freezing chamber, and 

 at the expiration of this time the perfect insect has been 



