4 BULLETIN 131, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
INFESTATION OF ORANGES. 
Oranges were not found infested with the fruit-fly during April and 
May. By the end of May oranges are almost entirely off the market 
in Sicily. Much orange fruit was examined during April and May, 
both on the Island of Sicily and on the mainland, but no infestation 
was found. In Calabria and at Messina oranges were seen with fruit- 
fly punctures from the previous season, but no larvae were present. 
The eggs failed to hatch or the larvae died immediately upon hatching 
without getting beyond the egg cavity. According to Dr. Martelli, 
entomologist at Messina, who has given considerable attention to 
the fruit-fly, oranges may usually be found infested by the 1st of June, 
but none was found with living larvae anywhere, to the writer's knowl- 
edge, up to the second week in June of 1913. 
When the writer returned to Sicily on the 1st of August such ripe 
oranges as were still on the trees or on the ground were heavily 
infested with the fruit-fly (PL I, fig. 2). Indeed, no oranges could 
be found that were either not infested or did not show punctures. 
For some reason unaccounted for, a few oranges among an almost 
complete infestation will show from two or three to a dozen punc- 
tures, yet will remain sound and contain no larvae. One orange taken 
late in August contained the remarkable number of 118 larvae (PI. I, 
fig. 5). These were mostly full grown, and the orange was below 
medium size. The pulp alone did not furnish sufficient food for such 
a number, so many of them had retreated to the denser rind, and it 
was necessary to cut this into very small pieces to disclose the larvae, 
which were concealed in small burrows. This orange, before it was 
cut, was firm and undecayed. 
The usual number found in oranges varied from 6 or 7 to 15 or 20. 
In peaches there were about the same number, but occasionally as 
many as 30 or 35. In figs usually from 3 or 4 to 8 or 10 were found, 
while in azaroles and plums, which are smaller, from 2 or 3 to 5 or 6 
would be the usual numbers. 
Both the sweet and bitter oranges were infested. The bitter 
orange, therefore, at least as it occurs in Sicily, is not objectionable 
as food to the fly. The pomelo, or grapefruit, is very rare in Sicily, as 
elsewhere in Europe, so that a fair test of possible infestation was not 
presented. A few old grapefruit, however, occurring on three or four 
trees that adjoined orange trees on which all the fruit was infested, 
showed no larvae or punctures. Mandarins are, of course, commonly 
infested. (PI. I, fig. 4.) Occasional ones, apparently remaining 
over from the previous year, were collected as late as August, and 
these were in nearly all cases infested. 
The first oranges of the crop of 1913 with fruit-fly punctures were 
seen about the middle of September. This fruit had begun to turn 
yellow over a small area on one side, and the punctures were in this 
