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curving around in front of the head between the eyes. The thickened 

 basal joints of the antenna? pale yellow, the terminal segments black to 

 the tips. The dorsal surface of the thorax convex, raised, and broadly 

 rounded with the scutellum, the ground color creamy white to yellow, 

 marbled with shining black blotches forming an irregular mosaic pat- 

 tern, the lighter portions clothed with very fine white bristles. These 

 light-colored bristles more lightly scattered over the dark areas, and the 

 whole bearing large, stout black bristles thickest on the black surface. 



In many of the pictures of this insect the black areas are drawn as if 

 they were projecting bosses or knobs, but this is incorrect; the whole 

 forms a regular rounded surface. 



The wings are broad, semi-opaque, with the extreme base blotched 

 with ochreous or brownish yellow, with the rest of the basal area curi- 

 ously marked with black, forming dark lines of the radiating nervures 

 with dark lines and spots between; beyond this is a broad, irregular 

 transverse ochreous band, slightly lined with black, blotched at the 

 extremity ; another similar shaped and colored blotch runs along inside, 

 but not in contact with the costal nervure, also black toward the extrem- 

 ity in the angular space. Between these bands is another shorter black 

 band running paralled with the first transverse band. 



The oval abdomen is clothed on the upper surface with fine, scattered 

 black bristles, and has two rather broad transverse silvery white bands 

 on the basal half of the body. The male differs from the female in 

 being furnished with a pair of stalked appendages standing out in front 

 of the head in a line with the front margin of the eyes, the extremities 

 of which filaments are produced into spatulate appendages black, finely 

 striated, and diamond shaped. 



The living fly is an active little creature, running about over the 

 foliage or fruit on the trees, with its wings drooping down on the sides 

 of the body. When disturbed it has a short flight, seldom flying more 

 than a few yards at the most, and it often returns to the same spot. 



THE MELON FLY (Dacus Cucurbitae). 



During the month of July, 1902, the writer was in the Hawaiian 

 Islands, and on seeing suuie fine-looking watermelons in a Honolulu 

 market, inquired the price as an intending purchaser. Imagine the 

 surprise on being informed by the shopman that they were one dollar 

 apiece. We afterward learned that this was due to the ravages of a 

 fruit fly, commonly called the Melon Fly (Dacus cucurbit ce-) and was 

 told that it was practically impossible to raise melons or cucumbers 

 except under glass or cloth, and that tomatoes are nearly as seriously 

 infested. 



This pest attacks practically all the cucurbits, tomatoes, string beans, 

 etc., also some fruits. We have taken it in consignments from the 

 Hawaiian Islands in the quarantine office at San Francisco in the fol- 

 lowing: Tomatoes, mangoes, cucumbers, squashes, and string beans. 

 The writer personally counted 79 maggots in a single tomato in a ship- 

 ment from Honolulu. So serious do we consider the danger from the 

 introduction of this pest into California, that a quarantine order has 

 been issued refusing admittance to California to all fruit or vegetables 

 known to be subject to its attack. 



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