39.8 
The mediterrAnenan naturalist 
from whence the bodies dropped. Two were per- 
fect, in .the other the abdomen was missing. In 
the abdomen of one could be seen a torpedo- 
shaped body; in that of the other, four of these 
bodies were visible.” Thus we have now all the 
information required to satisfy us that we cannot 
profitably look for a means of preventing future 
progeny by remedial measures against the 
female's mode of depositing her eggs, nor in 
attempting to destroy the eggs, themselves, for 
two very simple reasons: — 
1. When the egg is once inside the fruit, we 
we cannot get it out without destroying the 
fruit. 
2. As the fly is breeding right away through 
the season, we should have to spray day by day 
to prevent oviposition being effectively conducted 
and even then we assume exterior treatment is 
beneficial, a position I hold to be untenable in 
this instance. 
The eggs are laid to a depth of over three mil- 
limetres, but each egg deposited in the same 
fruit seems to be placed at a higher or lower 
level than its respective fellows. And there is 
no hard and fast rule as to how many eggs are 
deposited in each fruit. Much depends on the size 
of the fruit, its condition, and general character. 
Much depends on the insect’s instinctive apprecia- 
tion of a fitness of the surroundings, but it is 
worthy of note that I have not found an instance 
of only one egg being deposited singly. 
In the larval stage of this insect we cannot 
determine the sexual difference, nor yet in the 
pupal stage, and in neither is the insects capa- 
ble of producing its kind. It lias a complete 
metamorphosis, that is to say, the chrysalids lack 
locomotive power and do not feed. Some insects 
protect their eggs untii they are hatched, others — 
like our subject— drop them into the food-area 
and leave th€m for ever. It is an error to fix the 
time of depositing ova, through the rind of fruit 
and the period just before ripening. By common 
practice a rule may be sai l to have obtained 
but I can discover no restriction herein. I have 
found very minute maggots in a hard, green 
clingstone peach, where uf orifice was casually 
visible, and where their presence could only be 
ascertained by opening the fruit: Mr. Pym sent 
specimeus of maggot in a fresh plucked, 
green, hard, ordinary bakizg apple, insects are not 
always bound by hard and fast rules. One 
caterpillar will eat its way through a cardboard 
or wooden box, whilst another of similar age 
climbs up the inside and tumbles off the summit. 
Fitness of circumstance and accessibility of food 
are highly suggestive, whilst much depends upon 
the seasou and state of incoming fruit. 
“I have known the fruit to be perforated in 
some years when it was only half grown; in 
others, as the fruit is ripening.” — G. King , Bedford. 
“The female fly certainly bores a small hole or 
holes, and deposits its eggs just previous to 
ripening.” — Captain Norris- Newman. 
“I have noticed a fly, something like a mosquito 
sitting on the peach when it is nearly ripe, and 
after it has gone a drop of juice has appeared on 
the spot. I believe the fly must have a means of 
piercing the fruit and laying its eggs close to the 
core, and that the drop of juice exudes from the 
puncture. On breaking the fruit open I have not 
been able to trace the puncture or find, the eggs 
but they may be very small and have the same 
colour as the fruit” — J~I. Weakley. 
“Yes, most decidedly, she deposits before the 
fruit ripens.” — C , A. Pym. 
“She lays justs before the the fruit ripens, so I 
presume.” — Hards. 
“The egg, I think, is deposited some little time 
before the fruit ripens; if there is a little raid, 
you can see a long string of gum attached to the 
fruit, that has exuded from the punctures made 
by the female fly in peach and apricot. I don’t 
find any difference in the depositing of eggs in 
Freestone and Clingstone.” — Anon . Grahams 
Town. 
“If ripe fruit is plentiful, the eggs are deposited 
after the fruits being to soften; if scarce, they 
are deposited in hard fruit, but do not make 
such rapid progress, and in winter, when no fruit 
is to be found except oranges, the eggs are often 
deposited in half -ripe fruit to fall.” — JT. R. Sims. 
“I believe the fruit is punctured just before it 
ripens.” — 11. Pococ/c. 
“General opinion has it that eggs are deposited 
when the fruit is still very green, and not when 
it is nearly ripe, especially with the nectarine, as 
the grub is found in it at a very early stage.”— 
Magennis , 
