32 



BULLETIN 640, U. R. DEPARTMENT OP AGRPOULTPRE. 



fruits unless they could first prove to the satisfaction of the property 

 holders that each fruit was infested. This restriction placed upon 

 the activity of the inspectors led to numerous difficulties between 

 inspectors and those opposed to clean culture. This law also pro- 

 hibited a systematic gathering of all host fruits, within a given area, 

 thus necessitating many examinations for the removal, as they 

 ripened, of the fruits of each single tree. As fruits ripen rapidly in 

 the semitropics, it proved a physical impossibility to arrange visits 

 of inspectors frequently enough to prevent infested fruits from falling 

 to the ground. 



The data of Tables II and III demonstrate the immense number 

 and diversity of host trees and shrubs in Honolulu and the ease with 



Fig. 27.— Ball kamani trees grown for shade and ornament. This tree grows to a large size, and some- 

 times in dense thickets in the forest. Its fruits ripen at all seasons of the year and are badly infested by 

 the Mediterranean fruit fly. (Authors' illustration.) 



which the fruit fly, uncurbed by climatic conditions, finds fruit for 

 egg laying during any day of the year. It is absurd to endeavor to 

 remove all the fruit from many of the huge trees of the islands. There 

 are numerous large trees (figs. 27, 28) beneath which infested fruits 

 may be gathered each week in the year, yet the trees are so tall and 

 brittle that no inspector can remove the fruits before they ripen. 

 One yard in Hilo has 15 host trees from 20 to 50 feet high. To these 

 examples might be added many others in which the removal of fruits 

 is equally impracticable. Often the fruits of the star apple, for 

 instance, ripening in the tops of tall trees do not fall until long after 

 they have shriveled up and until after the many larvse developing 

 within have matured and dropped from them to the ground. One 



