THE MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY. 



21 



duced. This has been appreciated and has caused a readjustment of 

 prices paid for coffee "in the cherry" and has been responsible for 

 the erection of many small pulping mills throughout the Kona coffee 



district. 



It seems reasonable to believe that the remarkable success of 

 introduced parasites in checking the infestation of coffee will free the 

 coffee grower from fur- 

 ther worry so far as the 

 Mediterranean fruit fly 

 is concerned. s'& 



CITRUS FRUITS. 



While all citrus fruits 

 are favorite hosts of the 

 Mediterranean fruit fly, 

 certain of them are 

 found to contain larvae 

 more often than others. 

 No citrus fruits are too 

 acid for fruit-fly devel- 

 opment. Larvae have 

 been reared from the 

 sourest lemons. Adult 

 flies are fond of laying 

 eggs in large numbers 

 in all citrus fruits. Thus 

 13 punctures in one 

 grapefruit contained 

 76, 153, 32, 25, 18, 8, 

 46, 113, and 9 eggs, re- 

 spectively. Thirty-nine 

 oranges, either yellow 

 or orange in color, con- 

 tained an average of 32 

 egg punctures, with a 

 maximum of 108 and a minimum of 7 punctures. In 50 ripe lemons 

 1,422 eggs were laid in 185 punctures. Yet no adult flies developed 

 from this grapefruit or from the oranges and lemons. On the other 

 hand, well ripened Chinese oranges (fig. 18), thin-skinned limes, kum- 

 quats, and tangerines are so generally infested with larvae in the 

 pulp before they become well ripened that they are always regarded 

 with suspicion. 



Although many eggs are laid in lemons, it is rare that lemons 

 are found with maggots in the pulp even when the fruits are so ripe 



Fig. 19. — Lemons of commercial varieties have never been found 

 with larvEe of the Mediterranean fruit fly destroying the pulp 

 unless they have had the rind cut or broken previous to attack. 

 The adult flies may puncture the skin and lay eggs, as indicated 

 by the discolored spots, but the eggs and larvse die in the peel. 

 (Original.) 



