MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY IN HAWAII. 15 



In addition to the wild fruits in country places, the fruit fly finds 

 strongholds in the many, and often very isolated, native-home sites 

 scattered throughout the littoral regions. About these may be 

 growing the mango (PL XII), rose apple (PL IV, fig. 2), orange, peach, 

 avocado, ball and winged kamanis, etc. In the Kona district of the 

 island of Hawaii there are large areas containing thousands of acres 

 of coffee under cultivation (PL V) in which the fruit fly finds food in 

 the pulp of the ripening cherries at all seasons of the year because of 

 the irregularity in blooming and the long harvesting season due to 

 the varying altitudes at which coffee is grown. 



ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE. 



The economic importance of the Mediterranean fruit fly as a pest 

 of fruits varies with the climate of its habitat. Thus in France, 

 near Paris, where it has been known to attack apricots, pears, and 

 peaches, it has not become a serious pest because of climatic checks, 

 and such checks to the severity of its attack have been noted in 

 portions of Australia and South Africa and would be operative in 

 continental United States, except in parts of California and of the 

 Southern States. On the other hand, in tropical and semi tropical 

 climates this fruit fly is capable of becoming a pest of prime impor- 

 tance and, as in the Hawaiian Islands, may be classed as the most 

 important insect check to horticultural development. A study of 

 the fruits infested by this world-wide pest shows that practically 

 every fruit crop of value to man is subject to attack. Not only is 

 the Mediterranean fruit fly of importance as a destroyer of fruit, but 

 it is the cause of numerous stringent quarantines which cost the State 

 and Federal governments much money to make effective, and rob 

 countries of good or prospective markets for their fruit. Fortunately 

 it has been found that the Chinese banana (Musa cavendishii) and the 

 pineapple (Ananas sativus), the two most valuable species of fresh fruits 

 formerly exported from Hawaii, offer so little danger as carriers of the 

 Mediterranean fruit fly when they are packed for shipment that this 

 part of Hawaii's export trade with the coast may still be carried on, 

 provided the inspections of the Federal Horticultural Board now in 

 force are continued. The necessary quarantine against all other host 

 fruits, however, particularly against such fruits as the avocado and 

 mango, two fruits which can be grown very well in Hawaii, has had, 

 and will continue to have, a serious effect upon horticultural pursuits 

 and the development of the small farmer. 



At the present time the infestation of edible fruits in littoral 

 Hawaii is general and about as severe as could be expected. Aided 

 by the melon fly (Bactrocera cucurhitae Coq.), the Mediterranean fruit 

 fly has effected a most serious and permanent check upon the horti- 

 cultural development of the Hawaiian Islands unless a successful 



