MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY IN HAWAII. 73 



may be as high as 625. Fly No. 5 deposited 622 eggs and held 3 

 well-formed eggs in her oviducts at death. Fly No. 9, on the other 

 hand, deposited only 3 eggs during her life. The writers believe that 

 hardy females may deposit as many as 800 eggs, or even more, 

 under favorable conditions. Fly No. 5, which deposited 622 eggs, 

 lived only 153 days, while other females have oviposited for periods 

 covering more than 10 months and might be expected to deposit 

 more eggs. As noted above, one female deposited 11, 14, 9, and 9 

 eggs during the first 4 days of the seventh month of her life. 



NUMBER OF EGGS DEPOSITED AT ONE TIME. 



During the period from January 23 to 27, 1914, when the tempera- 

 tures during the heat of the day ranged between 74° and 76° F., 

 15 females were observed to oviposit in apples. The time required 

 from the instant the females started ovipositing until the ovipositor 

 was withdrawn varied from 2 to 5 minutes, with an average of 3.8 

 minutes. Each puncture was found to contain from 1 to 4 eggs, 

 and averaged 2.4 eggs. 



During the warmer period of the year, on April 13, 1914, when the 

 temperature averaged about 82° F., 8 females consumed from 2.5 to 

 4.5 minutes in completing the process of oviposition in apples, and 

 deposited from 3 to 9 eggs, or an average of 5.4 eggs in each puncture. 



NUMBER OF EGGS DEPOSITED IN A SINGLE EGG CAVITY. 



Females oviposit repeatedly in egg cavities or punctures in table 

 fruits, especially in those fruits in which they have difficulty in 

 making egg chambers. Thus while females, as already noted, 

 deposit normally only from 3 to 9 eggs in a puncture in apples at one 

 time, cavities in apples left with females from 3 p. m. until the fol- 

 lowing morning contained from 42 to 106 eggs. As many as 300 eggs 

 have been taken from one egg cavity in the rind of grapefruit, 129 

 from a cavity in a lemon, and 926 from a cavity in a mango. (PI. XIII, 

 fig. 3.) Observations indicate that after depositing a few eggs the 

 females feed and move about only to return in many instances to the 

 same spot to continue ovipositing. Frequently newly laid eggs can 

 be found in punctures in citrus fruits in which several batches of eggs 

 already have been hatched. Bearing in mind that only from 1 to 9 

 eggs are usually deposited in an egg cavity at one time, the data in 

 Table XI will prove interesting. 



OVIPOSITION BY VIRGIN FEMALES. 



Females confined in jars immediately after emergence and given no 

 opportunity to mate will deposit eggs, but none of the eggs will hatch. 

 On September 10, 1913, 500 newly emerged virgin females were 

 placed in a jar and began ovipositing in a normal manner on Sep- 

 tember 16, or after 6 days. One hundred and twenty-eight eggs 



