337 
has been sent to that Commission, and a copy of my letter is sub- 
mitted herewith. I have endeavored to trace the spread of the 
fruit fly as far as possible and to learn something from those 
who claim to have known of its existence here last season. 
The Mediterranean fruit fly (Ccratatis capitata) is reported 
from the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, Cape 
Colony, Natal, Azores, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Ber- 
muda. It is reported as attacking oranges, lemons, limes, guavas, 
mangoes, peaches, sapote, loquat, eugenias and other soft-meated 
fruits. As far as I have been able to study this pest here I 
liave only been able to rear the fly from oranges and limes. 
From the report of various growers and from the present dis- 
Iribution of the pest we have come to the conclusion that the pest 
was introduced several years ago. Judge Cooper, of Manoa, re- 
ports that about three years ago he submitted affected oranges 
to the U. S. Experiment Station and the Board of Agriculture 
and that at that time the blemish on the fruit was considered 
only a bruise. This is not impossible, for when the fruit is first 
attacked and the larvae have not broken through the skin so that 
juices issue, the affected part has a close resemblance to a bruise. 
Only on cutting open the affected portion and finding maggots, 
would any suspicion be aroused. Very often after the maggots 
have escaped, especially is this true of a very dry orange, the re- 
maining dark spot resembles a bruise. Judge Cooper’s observa- 
tion of the condition of the fruit at that time tallies with his 
observations today and we find the maggot present in great num- 
bers. A party from Kalihi reports finding oranges with bruises 
(maggots) in August of last year and brought me specimens 
from the locality in the beginning of September of this year 
from which I reared the fruit fly. 
April 2nd of this year Mr. Blackman of Kaimuki, brought in a 
few oranges which contained maggots of different size. These 
I placed in a breeding jar and on April 7th I visited Mr. Black- 
man’s place to further study the trouble. I procured more speci- 
mens and observed the melon fly resting in the trees. From the 
material collected we reared mostly Drosophillids, which feed on 
fermenting juices, but we also reared one adult melon fly. Noth- 
ing further was thought of this matter because we found that 
many of the oranges on the trees showed thorn injury and we 
came to the conclusion that this had attracted the Drosophillids 
and the melon fly. 
On June 21st Mr. D. T. Fullaway of the L^. S. Experiment 
Station brought an adult of the Mediterranean fruit fly into my 
office and reported finding it in his insectary, which is all screened 
with fine mesh wire. He could not account for the appearance 
of the fly and to his knowledge no materials of any kind had 
been brought in from outside countries. On account of this I 
again visited Mr. Blackman’s place, the only place where oranges 
had been found infested with maggots, but failed to find any 
