8 
BULLETIN 643, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Other fruits can be grown for the most part only under cover and at 
increased cost. The unrestricted cultivation of fruits and vegetables 
in Hawaii has been ruined by the melon fly and the Mediterranean 
fruit fly. Though the latter is probably the more to be feared, many 
persons regard the melon fly as of greater im- 
portance from an Hawaiian standpoint, for it 
attacks with the greatest persistency such crops 
as squashes, pumpkins, vegetable marrows, to- 
matoes, and beans, all of which could furnish 
under the ideal Hawaiian climatic conditions 
an abundance of food for the poorer people. 
Such vegetables as muskmelons, watermelons, 
pumpkins, squashes, and tomatoes can not be 
grown to-day in many parts of the islands 
unless the plants are screened carefully. 
Cantaloupes and watermelons, instead of be- 
ing common and cheap delicacies, as in former 
years, are now a luxury for even the wealthy. 
Cantaloupes, once grown in large quantities 
about Honolulu, now are imported from Cali- 
fornia. It is no longer possible to grow pump- 
kins as stock food on idle land. Quarantines 
prohibit the export of early shipments of egg- 
plant, bell peppers, and tomatoes, thus shut- 
ting off an income formerly enjoyed by the 
small farmer. The loss to market gardeners in 
Hawaii as a result of melon-fly attack has been 
placed conservatively at three-fourths of a mil- 
lion dollars annually. It is not possible to 
exaggerate the importance of the melon fly 
as a serious pest under Hawaiian coastal con- 
ditions. 
NATURE OF INJURY CAUSED BY THE 
MELON FLY. 
Fig. 7. — Older squash 
vine with abnormal 
growths due to work 
of melon-fly larva?. 
(Authors' illustra- 
tion.) 
The melon fly does not confine its attack to 
the fruits of its host or food plants. It may 
attack the young seedling, the flower, the root, 
the stem, or the fruit. 
INJURY TO SEEDLING PLANTS. 
The melon fly attacks with severity the young succulent seedling 
plants of watermelon and cantaloupe. The female fly lays her eggs in 
