40 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA: 



weeks, occasionally less than two weeks. It invariably 

 happens that when the grub has done feeding, it leaves 

 the fruit, which has usually fallen to the ground. After 

 leaving the fruit the grub usually tries to hide beneath 

 the soil, sometimes going as deep as four inches, and 

 then within twenty-four hours changes into a chrysalis. 



1 i In summer a period of from seven to fourteen days 

 elapses before the fly is out of the chrysalis, but in winter 

 the lethargic condition continues much longer. There 

 are several broods during the year, and from August to 

 April (in Queensland and New South Wales) reproduction 

 is virtually continuous; as females preponderate and as 

 each lays twelve eggs, prodigious multiplication is the 

 result. Occasionally the fly passes the winter as a 

 perfect insect. The ability to breed throughout the year 

 is due to the succession of fruits from loquats to oranges 

 in winter. ' ' 



Many larvae of this fly reach Melbourne in bananas, 

 oranges, cucumbers, &c., and have been reared by me. 

 The habits are almost similar to those of the Mediter- 

 ranean fruit fly, but the insects sometimes take longer 

 to hatch. The majority of larvae placed in breeding jars 

 on 20th August pupated on 28th August, and emerged 

 on 6th November; others took only six weeks to hatch, 

 and lived sixteen days without food. Mr. E. J. O'Connor, 

 of Ivanhoe, kept this fly alive for nine weeks by feeding 

 it with oranges and water. 



QUEENSLAND FRUIT FLY. 

 Variety cucumis. French. 



I have given the above name provisionally to the fruit 

 fly reared from cucumbers sent from Boweii (Queens- 

 land). It is closely allied to the Queensland fly; but 

 the well defined yellow bands on the abdomen are 

 wanting ; the whole color of the fly is much lighter in 

 appearance, and the pupa-cases are a little larger. The 

 larvse are of a deeper color than those of the ordinary 



