BULLETIX 643, U. S. DEPART3IEXT OF AGRICULTUBE. 
through the plant tissues. But as the larvae, even when full grown, 
are only about two-fifths of an inch long, a detailed description of 
them is of little value. It is enough to know that they differ very 
little from the ordinary white maggots, of equal size, with which 
the reader is doubtless familiar. The larvae when full grown leave 
the host to transform to the pupa stage just beneath the surface of 
the soil, or beneath any protecting object. They even may transform 
to the pupa within the host fruit, but this is a rare occurrence. Figure 
± shows larvae and pupae about twice natural size. 
In figure 6 are shown well-grown larvae feeding in 
the root of a young watermelon plant. Figure 5 
represents an enlarged larva. 
As the melon fly usually first forces itself upon 
the attention of the market gardener by the dam- 
age it does, it is more important to be able to recog- 
nize it by its work than by a mere description of 
the different stages. The reader, therefore, is 
directed particularly to the illustrations, for, be- 
sides showing types of injury, they make clear 
that it is in the larva stage that the melon fly 
causes its greatest damage. 
ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION. 
The original home of the melon fly is the Indo- 
Malayan region. At present it is known to occur 
in various parts of India, in Ceylon, Java, Macao, 
Timor, northern Australia, about Singapore, in 
southern China at Canton and Hongkong, in the 
Philippine Islands, in Formosa, and in the Ha- 
waiian Islands. There is some doubt at present 
about its occurrence at Xagasaki, Japan. 
It is believed that the melon fly was introduced 
into the Hawaiian Islands at Honolulu from 
It probably arrived in the larva stage in vege- 
tables brought along as food from Japan by Japanese coolies emi- 
grating as steerage passengers to work on the sugar plantations in 
Hawaii. 
ESTABLISHMENT AND SPREAD IN HAWAII. 
Fig. 3. — The melon 
fly : a, Eggs de- 
posited in cavity 
in young pumpkin 
flower ; 6, single 
egg, much en- 
larged. (Authors' 
illustration.) 
Japan or China. 
The melon fly was first observed in Hawaii, so far as records show, 
by Mr. Byron O. Clark, who, during October to December, 1897, 
found it almost impossible to grow cucumbers, squashes, melons, and 
similar vegetables in the Kalihi district of Honolulu and about Pearl 
City. During August, 1S98. the pest already was established at Lau- 
