FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
99 
as the “apple mango/’ was not known to 
be infested, and it should be permitted en¬ 
try. In order to know what a “manga” 
really was, the assistant quarantine inspec¬ 
tor at Key West sent an apparently un¬ 
infested manga to the office at Gainesville, 
where it was put into a jar of preservative 
to keep as an exhibit. Several days later 
a larva of a fruit fly was noticed half 
emerged from the “manga” driven out, 
no doubt, by the preservative penetrating 
the tunnels made by it. This, of course, 
made the Plant Board all the more deter¬ 
mined that the fruit should be prohibited 
entry ? no matter by what name it was dis¬ 
guised. As mangoes are almost staple ar¬ 
ticles of diet with the Cubans and natives 
of the West Indies, there is not a day that 
passes that they are not taken from pas¬ 
sengers at Key West, Port Tampa and 
Miami. The interception of mangoes in¬ 
fested with the fruit fly has been so nu¬ 
merous that the men on duty are taking 
it as a matter of course. This does not 
mean that they are not taking the same 
pains to intercept such importations; on 
the other hand, a mango means a fruit fly 
to them, and it is disposed of with the 
greatest speed possible. Quite recently 
another possible manner of this fly be¬ 
coming established in Florida has been 
discovered. An enterprising fruit com¬ 
pany has put on several refrigerator ships 
to carry cargoes of fruit from the Argen¬ 
tine, where the fly is causing enormous 
losses, to New York. Here the fruit is 
shipped by express to all parts of the Unit¬ 
ed States. A short time ago the inspectors 
at Jacksonville intercepted such a ship¬ 
ment of fresh peaches consigned to a deal¬ 
er in Florida. There is always the possi¬ 
bility of the fly becoming established 
through a similar shipment getting by our 
men. Cold storage will not kill the larva 
of the fruit fly; it merely checks devel¬ 
opment, and when the fruit is removed 
from the refrigerator, the maggot is all 
ready to start development. A crate of 
peaches was en route from Cape Colony, 
South Africa, to New Zealand for four 
weeks. Upon arrival at destination, it 
was found to be heavily infested with lar¬ 
vae of the fruit fly, all of which were in 
the best of health. 
In certain parts of Mexico, Tampico is 
one of them, the production of oranges 
has been abandoned, and the mango crop 
has been reduced to one-fifth of the nor¬ 
mal by the attacks of the Mexican Orange 
Maggot, another of the dreaded fruit fly 
family. In addition this insect attacks 
many vegetables, one of which is the to¬ 
mato. Tampico seems a long way off, but 
there is not a week that passes without 
several oil tankers docking at Florida 
piers. As the crews of these ships are 
given the best to eat, it is not un frequent 
that interceptions of fruit from Mexico 
are found on board the ship. 
Last of the fruit flies, but not least by 
any means, is the Mediterranean fruit fly. 
If this insect becomes established in Flor¬ 
ida, we may as well lock up the packing 
houses and quit trying to raise fruit and 
vegetables. This pest has caused the 
peach-growing industry near Barcelona, 
Spain, to be abandoned; it has checked 
fruit-growing in South Africa, and in 
parts of Australia the peach groves have 
been cut down on account of the attacks 
