136 



in Musta, but afterwards I met with it in Casal^ Balzan, Lia and At* 

 tard. 



We find two species of flies (Diptera) wliicli are the worst foes of 

 the orange groves and of orchards in general. One of these fruit- 

 flies, Halterophora capitata is more common than the other. It came 

 from India through Suez Canal, Egypt, Greece and Sicily, whence it 

 probably came to Malta along with Sicilian oranges. It is about 1-6 

 part of an inch in length, a little smaller than the common house-fly 

 with a \^hite head, having a yellow line across its forehead. Its an- 

 tennae are yellow covered with white hairs ; Its thorax is black with 

 four \^hite lines. Its abdomen striped with yellow add white 

 lines alternately. Its legs are yellow ; its wings, which are al- 

 ways kept outspread, have yellow lines and small black dots 

 towards the tip. It likes to bask in the sun, squatted upon 

 the fruit and leaves. The other fruit-fly, Halterophora his- 

 panica, was known long ago in the Azores, Portugal and Spain, 

 whence it passed into Morocco, Algeria. Tunis and Tripoli, and finally 

 made its way to Malta, but it is not so commonly met with as the 

 other. Its general colour, viewed from a distance, is greyish green. 

 Its wings, except when flying are always kept folded up, and are per- 

 fectly transparent. This fly shuns the sun, and is generally found 

 npon the shaded trunk and branches, and goes on the fruit only to lay 

 its eggs. When the fruit-fly is about to lay its eggs in October, it 

 seeks the fruit which is most exposed to the sun, as it has* a thinner 

 peel. With its ovipositor it makes a small pimcture in the peel, 

 and at the same time drops from four to fifteen tiny white eggs. If 

 the weather is hot the eggs are hatched in about six days, and the 

 small grubs pierce through the fruit, destroying the pulp. In about 

 five days the grubs will grow to the adult stage and the fruit dropping 

 down, t\ e grubs quit it and hide themselves in the earth, boring 

 down to about an inch from the surface. There they assume the 

 chrysalis state, in which they resemble a grain of wheat, though some- 

 what smaller. If warm weather continues, in five days more, the 

 perfect insect (the fruit-fly) issues forth from its low abode to renew 

 the havoc If cold weather sets in, the chrysalis enters into a 

 lethargic state for the rest of winter, and only awakens to winged 

 life towards the end of April. Ajjiong the numerous methods 

 proposed to rid the orange groves of this pest we will mention 

 only two. The perfect insect can be caught by means of small 

 boards besmeared with honey and turpentine. The greedy insect 

 goes to sip the honey and is taken hold of by the turpentine. 

 Three boards thus besmeared, upon each tree, are quite enough. 

 The second method consists in kidnapping the grubs while they are 

 busily destroying the precious crop. All dropped, half rotten fruit 

 should be gathered every morning and disposed of as quickly and 

 effectually as possible. Some cultivators sprinlde it with petroleum 

 and burn it. Others bury it deep underground. It is usual, in 

 following this last practice to dig a long ditch, and to spread a layer 

 of quicklime at the bottom ; upon this is thrown a layer of the 

 infected fruit, and then another layer of quicklime, and so on, till 

 the ditch is filled to half a foot from the surface, the whole- 

 mass is then covered with earth, and well pressed down, and on^- 



