6 BULLETIN 491, U. S. DEPAUTMEXT OF AGElCt T Ltt T EE. 



ravages, however, appeared in " The Hawaiian, " a newspaper pub- 

 lished in Honolulu during 1898, and this is given in full in the 

 bibliography. An article entitled "A dipterous enemy of cucurbits 

 in the Hawaiian Islands," prepared by Dr. Howard (3) and pub- 

 lished in 1900, is of importance, as it contains the first printed state- 

 ments of melon-fly ravages to be found in scientific literature. Dr. 

 Howard gives the substance of a letter written him under date of 

 February 14, 1899, by Mr. Compere in Honolulu. 



The bibliography (p. 57) contains all references to the melon 

 fly known to the writers. Most of it is unimportant and is con- 

 spicuously meager, as shown by the attached summaries or verbatim 

 quotations. Prof. M. Bezzi, in the Bolletino del Laboratorio di 

 Zoologia, 1909 (24), and in the Memoirs of the Indian Museum, 1913 

 (36) , has treated the systematic relationship of the melon fly. Banks 

 (30), in 1912, gave the first technical and trustworthy description of 

 the well-grown larva. All these references, with the exception of 

 Coquillett'S article already mentioned, deal with the economic status 

 of the pest. For the most part they merely list the fly from certain 

 localities and contain brief references to its capacity for damage to 

 crops, or to the desirability of establishing or making more vigilant 

 quarantine regulations. Thus Maxwell-Lefroy (18), Howlett (20), 

 and Fletcher (43) give information regarding the pest in India; 

 Green (34) and Rutherford (40) in Ceylon; Dammerman (41) in 

 Java; Essig (35) in the Philippines; Muir (38) in Formosa; Hill 

 (50) in Northern Australia, and Compere (33) and Froggatt (26) 

 throughout the Orient in general. 



The remaining references are from Hawaiian and California 

 sources and are the result of the presence of the melon fly in Hawaii. 

 From the quarantine standpoint the references of Craw (7) and 

 Maskew (42) throw light on the present-day possibilities of spread. 

 From a biological standpoint the references of Van Dine (19), 

 Severin, Severin and Hartung (45), and Back and Pemberton (46) 

 are the most important. 



The article by Van Dine (19) contains a concise general account 

 of the known facts concerning the melon fly published up to 1908, 

 in addition to a complete bibliography and the first illustrations of 

 adult, larva, eggs, and puparium. He states that the fly requires 

 three weeks to pass through the egg, larval, and pupal stages. 

 Severin (45), in September, 1914, published results and observations 

 on the melon fly which may properly be called the first careful work 

 done on the biology, extent of injury, and methods of control. This 

 is the most important biologic paper published up to that time and 

 contains so many new data that it should be possessed by investiga- 

 tors of the melon fly. The article by the writers (46) appearing 



