72 



BULLETIN" 536, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



148 days old, and this is the largest number of eggs ever obtained 

 by the writers during one day from any female. The flies of Table 

 XX oviposited on the sides of their containing jars during the period 

 up to the time they were given fruits in which to deposit eggs, but 

 not in a normal manner. 



Table XX. — Daily rate of oviposition of the Mediterranean fruit fly . 



[Females emerged on February 28, 191^ 



; hence were 4 months old on June 28, 1914. Given an 



opportunity 





to oviposit on 



fruit for first time on 



July 1.] 





Number of eggs deposited. 



Date.* 



Number of eggs deposited. 



Date, i 





























Flv 



Fly 



Flv 



Flv 



Fly 



Fly 





Fly 



Flv 



Fly 



Fly 



Flv 



Fly 





No.l. 



No. 2. 



flo.3. 



No. 4. 



.No. 5. 



No. 6. 





No.l. 



No. 2. 



No. 3. 



No. 4. 



No. 5. 



No. 6. 



1914. 















1914. 















July 1 



















6 







July 19.... 



6 



2 















2.... 



9 















2 







20.... 







5 





4 









3.... 



















4 







21 



5 



2 





6 









4 



10 



4 















6 



22.... 







8 





7 









5 



4 























23.... 







2 















6.... 



5 



6 







4 











24 



2 



6 





13 



(*) 





7 





 10 





 15 





 6 

 4 

 6 





 

 

 





 

 9 

 3 





 

 

 



12 

 6 



13 

 2 



25.:.. 



26.... 

 27 



28.... 



6 



22 



9 



9 



2 



1 

 2 

 







 

 

 5 







8 







9 







10 







11 



5 



2 















4 



29.... 



6 



7 













13.... 



12 



7 



( 2 ) 



5 











30.... 



















14 



2 









5 







(3) 



Aug. 1 







(5) 













15.. 



7 

 



9 

 8 







 





 





2.... 

 3 







( 6 ) 









 ( 2 ) 







16... 











17.... 



18.... 



13 

 5 



3 

 





11 

 4 





 



















Total.. 



162 



97 







76 



12 



43 



1 Dates on which none of the flies oviposited are omitted from the table. 



2 Died on this date; no eggs in abdomen. 



3 Died on this date; 11 eggs in abdomen. 



4 Died on this date; 5 eggs in abdomen. 



5 Died on this date. 



6 Died on this date; 4 eggs in abdomen. 



One female emerging March 3, 1914, was isolated from fruits until 

 August 29, or for 5 months and 26 days. When placed with, fruit 

 on August 29 she deposited 4, 5, 11, 14, 9, and 9 eggs on August 31, 

 September 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, or an average of 8.7 eggs for each day 

 on which she oviposited. She deposited 11, 14, 9, and 9 eggs, respec- 

 tively, on the first 4 days of the seventh month of her life, but 

 died on the fifth day. 



NUMBER OF EGGS DEPOSITED BY SINGLE FEMALES. 



No attempts have been made by previous writers to determine 

 the egg-laying capacity of the female. In 1906 Fuller assumed as 

 a basis for data on multiplication that each female deposited 50 

 eggs at one time. Silvestri, after becoming familiar with the work 

 of the writers while in Honolulu, stated that the total number of 

 eggs deposited is not less than 300. In general, entomologists 

 invariably have used the number of eggs found in the body as a 

 basis for computing the egg-laying capacity. 



In Table XIX the only data obtained by the writers on this sub- 

 ject show that the total number of eggs deposited by a single female 



