743 A. E. Verrill— The Bermuda Islands. 331 
Peach-fly ; Peach-maggot. (Ceratitis capitata Wied., as Trypeta.) 
Figure 92. 
This small fly, whose larva lives in the flesh of the peach, orange, 
and other fruit, is very destructive. Its ravages have caused the 
cultivation of the peach, formerly abundant, to be almost entirely 
abandoned. 
This peach-pest was first recorded from Bermuda by Messrs. C. 
V. Riley and L. O. Howard* from specimens sent to them by C. W. 
McCallan of St. George’s, with an account of its ravages. The 
article cited gives a pretty full historical account of the insect and 
excellent figures of the fly and its larva. In the same volume, p. 
120, they print another letter from Mr. McCallan, dated Aug. 6, 1890, 
90 
Figure 90.—Onion-fly ; a, larva, nat. size; b, the same, enlarged; c, imago, 
enlarged 3 times; after Packard. Figure 92.—Peach-fly (Ceratitis capi- 
tata); a, imago; 6, larva, both x3; after Riley. From Webster’s Inter- 
national Dictionary. 
giving farther details of its habits. According to him, it was not 
then known to injure oranges and other citrus fruits in Bermuda, 
though it does so in other countries, but it was very destructive to the 
peaches, the larve boring in the pulp in large numbers and causing 
the fruit to fall. He says that the same or a similar larva attacked 
the loquat and Surinam cherry in the same way. He also mentioned 
finding the fly on the leaves and fruit of the lime, and on grape 
vines. He states that they had then been known in Bermuda for 
about 25 years. In Madeira, the Azores, Cape Verde Islands, Malta, 
Mauritius, etc., a fly, supposed to be the same species (described by 
Macleay, 1829, as C. citriperda), is very destructive to oranges, 
causing them to fall when about half grown. It might easily have 
* See Riley and Howard. A Peach Pest in Bermuda, Insect Life, iii, p. 5, figs. 
1, 2, Aug., 1890 ; also, vol. iii, p. 120, 1890. 
