THE MELON FLY IN HAW An. 19 



intervals for the larvse and puparia. The labor of sifting is made 

 easier if the fruits are placed on a wire mesh which holds them away 

 from the sand. 



tHE ADULT. 



DESCRIPTION. 



The adult of the melon fly is larger than related species of Bactrocera, being 

 under normal conditions from 6 to 8 mm. in length. According to Bezzi (36) 

 it may be distinguished from all other Indian species by the fact that it has 

 the posterior cross-vein widely bordered with brown. The original description 

 by Coquillett (2), which is good, is given in full in the bibliography (p. 58), 

 together with the supplementary notes made by Bezzi (36), and to those descrip- 

 tions the investigator should refer for details. In general the arrangements of 

 the black spots upon the yellowish head, the light yellow markings upon the 

 reddish-yellow thorax, and the brown spots upon the otherwise hyaline wings 

 make the identification of the melon fly an easy matter. As a further aid to 

 identification figure 1 and Plate II have been added. 



EMERGENCE. 



Adults emerge during the early morning hours in warm weather, 

 but during cooler weather more scatteringly throughout the day. 

 In common with all Cyclorrhapha, the adult makes use of the 

 ptilinum in breaking the walls of the puparium and in forcing its 

 way to the surface of the soil, or in extricating itself from other con- 

 fining walls. Just after emergence, before the normal colors of the 

 body have developed and while the chitin is still flexible, the adults 

 are able to push their way through incredibly small openings, being 

 able so to flatten their bodies that they can make use of small cracks 

 in soil from which they could not otherwise escape, and can extricate 

 themselves from containing fruit boxes and many other containers 

 not absolutely tight. Cracks of the thickness of ordinary blotting 

 paper do not always prevent their escape just after emergence. 



LONGEVITY OP ADULT MELON FLIES. 



With food.— The data included in Table I are the first that have 

 been made to determine the age to which adult melon flies can live 

 if kept well supplied with food. One female lived from February 

 IT, 1914, to April 4, 1915, or 13 months and 15 days, a total of 431 

 days. One female emerging at the same time, but not included in 

 Table I, lived until April 3, 1915. In general, the adult melon fly 

 appears to be very hardy and far more resistant to moisture in rear- 

 ing jars than is the adult of the Mediterranean fruit fly. This may 

 be due principally to the larger and more robust build of the melon fly. 

 The data in Table I, covering the 9 J months after the flies had reached 

 the age of 4 months, show that the death rate is low among the older 

 flies. Two other lots of adults of 43 (15 males and 28 females) and 

 44 (15 males and 29 females) individuals of the same age and simi- 



