UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



I BULLETIN No. 491 



Contribution from Bureau of Entomology 

 L. O. HOWARD, Chief 



Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER 



June 30, 1917 



THE MELON FLY IN HAWAII. 



By E. A. Back, Entomologist, and C. E. Pemberton, Scientific Assistant, 

 Mediterranean and other Fruit Fly Investigations. 



CONTENTS. 



Page, 



Introduction 1 



Origin 2 



Distribution 3 



Source of Hawaiian infestation 4 



Early history in Hawaii 4 



Literature 5 



Economic importance 7 



Injury 8 



Food plants 12 



Life history and habits 18 



The adult 19 



The egg 32 



Page. 

 Life history and habits— Continued. 



The larva 34 



The pupa 40 



Length of life cycle 43 



Seasonal history 44 



Method of spread 44 



Control measures 45 



Natural control 45 



Artificial control 47 



Summary 55 



Bibliography 57 



INTRODUCTION. 



The melon fly {Bactrocera cucurbitae Coq.) (fig. 1) is a pest intro- 

 duced into the Hawaiian Islands from the Orient, about 1895. As 

 shown by the reports of the quarantine officers of the Federal Horti- 

 cultural Board, it is being continually intercepted at the port of San 

 Francisco, in cargoes arriving from Honolulu, and there is danger that 

 it will be introduced into continental United States. Together with the 

 Mediterranean fruit fly {Ceratitis capitata Wied.), also recently in- 

 troduced, it has had a most ruinous effect upon horticultural pursuits 

 of Hawaii. The equable climate and abundant food supply have 

 given this pest an excellent opportunity to increase unmolested and, at 

 the time the writers undertook the investigation herein reported, the 

 melon fly had made impossible a free cultivation of the most valuable, 

 economically, of the Cucurbitaceae and other truck crops. No natu- 

 ral agencies have thus far been discovered which serve as a practical 

 check upon its ravages, and artificial methods of control, especially 

 control by poisoned-bait sprays, have been found inadequate, owing 



65732 e — Bull. 401—17 1 



