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945
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Entomol

UC-NRLF

GIFT Of

CALIFORNIA STATE COMMISSION Of HORTICULTURE

J. W. JEFFREY, Commi..ioner

A FRUIT FLY MENACE

(Ceratitis Capitata)

ORANGE SHOWING ADULT FRUIT FLIES AT REST.
AFTER W. B. GURK«EY, _A<jn. GAZETTE, N.; S. \V.

SACRAMENTO

W. W. SHANNON - - - M PKRINTENDENT OF STATE PRINTING

1911

CALIfORNIA STATE COMMISSION Of HORTICULTURE.

MAIN OFFICE:

CAPITOL BUILDING, SACRAMENTO, CAL.

J. W. JEFFREY, Commissioner Sacramento

O. E. BREMNER, Secretary __ Sacramento

MISS A. G. BIRD, Clerk —Sacramento

GEORGE COMPERE, Special Field Agent— Sacramento

E. J. BRANIGAN, Field Agent __Sacramento

B. B. WHITNEY, Field Agent i Sacramento

QUARANTINE DIVISION :

ROOM 11, FERRY BUILDING, SAN FRANCISCO.

DUDLEY MOULTON, Deputy Commissioner San Francisco

WILLIAM WOOD, Inspector Whittier

R. E. JEFFREY, Assistant Inspector— __San Francisco

STATE INSECT ARY:

CAPITOL PARK, SACRAMENTO.

E. K. CARNES, Superintendent ± £ Sacramento

FREDERICK MASKEW, Assistant Superintendent Sacramento

A PRUIT FLY MENACE.

Compilation by O. E. BREMNER.

The fruit growers of the State of California have realized during the
past few years, more especially, that the fruit industry is bearing a great
burden of tax from the source of insect pests and diseases. The advent
of even threatened invasion of any new pest is therefore viewed with
great alarm, and justly so. Even our state and county quarantine forces
have been more alert and careful in their inspection duties since the
White Fly (Aleyrodes citri) outbreak three years ago at Marysville,
Oroville, and Bakersfield.

While we know that our fruits are attacked by many serious pests,
much more serious are those which are now just outside our borders, and
but for the utmost vigilance will gain admittance to our State. This
leaflet is, therefore, issued with the intention of sounding a warning
against what is undoubtedly the most destructive and hardest to combat
of all insect pests, namely, the fruit flies. The three menacing our State at
present are the Morelos orange maggot (Trypeta ludens) of Mexico, the
Melon Fly (Dacus cucurbitce), and Mediterranean Fruit Fly (Ceratitis
capitata) of the Hawaiian Islands. It is of the last named fly that we
have the most fear, and to which we wish to particularly call your atten-
tion.

In October, 1910, we received the following letter from the Board of
Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry, Honolulu, dated October 6,
1910:

"State Commissioner of Horticulture, Capitol Building, Sacramento, California:

SIR : It is with the greatest regret that I have to inform you of the appearance on
this island of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly (Ceratitis capitata). At a meeting of
the Board of Agriculture and Forestry, held yesterday, I advised the Board to notify

the California Commission of Horticulture, and now officially do so by their order.
**************

Yours very truly,

(Signed) EDWD. M. EHRHORN.

' Supt. of Entomology."

The seriousness of this pest can only be comprehended when we take
into consideration the fact that practically every known fruit and vege-
table, both cultivated and wild, is attacked by this insect. It is essen-
tially a stone fruit pest, but does not limit its diet to these fruits, as
shown by the following article :

(T. W. KIRK, NEW ZEALAND DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. FRUIT FLIES.)

"Any person finding a white pointed maggot resembling the maggot of the Blow
Fly in fruit, is requested to at once send fruit and insect to this office.

The impossibility of applying remedial measures has led Inspectors Benson and
Boiler of the Queensland Department of Agriculture to conduct a series of experi-
ments to endeavor to discover some substance which would act as a deterrent to the
female when egg laying and to protect the crop. The results are, however, disap-
pointing. The following is their report :

**************

In Western Australia and in New South Wales nothing has been found of any
use against the fly. At the Cape of Good Hope the only successful method has been
covering the fruit with mosquito curtain whilst the fruit was ripening. * * *
\\ «• have now had to burn consignments of the following fruits, because they were
infested with this dreaded maggot :

Peaches. Apricots. Nectarines.

( Mn-rries. Pears. Apples.

Mangoes. Shaddocks. Mammee-apples.

Pineapples. Tomatoes. Loquats.

Persimmons. Plums. Mandarins,

oranges. Bananas. .Maupi fruit.

Grenadillas. Figs.

Should this pest ever become established here it would mean the ruin of the stone
fruit industry of the north. It will be seen that practically all varieties of fruit are
attacked, and the measures taken to keep this fly out of New Zealand can not be too
severe.

Some persons evidently quite without knowledge of the subject, have expressed the
opinion that New Zealand is too cool for the Fruit Fly to breed. There is absolutely
no ground for such an opinion to rest upon, as the following information will show :

(He then gives statistics showing that adult flies have been bred in temperatures
down to 32 Fahrenheit. )

In winter, however, I have had the insect remain in chrysalis stage for seven
months and then emerge." * * *

Mr. Kirk's statements alone are convincing and alarming enough, but
we have much more of a like character. Mr. Lounsbury of Cape Town,
South Africa, informed us while here two years ago that the Government
was furnishing growers netting to cover over their fruit trees, as this
was the only way they could produce it free from maggots. Even as far
back as 1899 this method was pursued in Natal and Cape Colony. Dur-
ing that year Mr. Lounsbury states that only 4,000 yards two yards wide
was used, and that the growers did not take to this method of eradication.

In Western Australia the Government bought all the fruit for one
season in an infested district and had it all burned in the hopes of
stamping out the pest. But the next year the fly appeared quite as
numerous as ever. This was, of course, accounted for by the fact that
it was impossible to destroy all the wild fruit and berries, etc.

Mr. Gurney of New South Wales gives us some interesting data
regarding the resistancy of this fly to any form of treatment, Among
other things he states :

Burying fly-infected fruit can not be advocated. Pupae buried six, eight, and
twelve inches below the surface of the soil hatched, and adult flies readily made their
way to the surface in all cases.

Burning or boiling infected fruits is the most effective and satisfactory method
of destruction. The maggots are not readily destroyed by liquids. After six hours
in salt water some maggots pupated and developed into flies. Infected fruit was
submerged in salt water (sea water) for periods varying from six to forty-five hours.
In each case a large percentage of the maggots therein developed into adult flies.
Some maggots immersed in methylated spirits for up to half an hour survived, and
some survived dipping in kerosene. Though eventually the maggots would perish in
the above fluids, yet these experiments indicate that no casual treatment (such as
throwing infected fruit into a creek, wetting fruit with oils, etc.) can be considered
a safe method for the destruction of maggot-infected fruit.

There is no doubt as to the seriousness of this pest in the minds of the
Hawaiian authorities, as shown by the following quarantine rule:

BULE VII.

Rule and regulation by the Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry con-
cerning the prevention of distribution of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly from Oahu
to the other islands.

The Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry of the Territory of
Hawaii hereby make the following rule and regulation :

SECTION 1. For the purpose of preventing the spread of the Mediterranean Fruit
Fly (Ceratatis capitata) from the island of Oahu, territory of Hawaii, where the
same has established itself, to any other island in the territory, all persons and corpo-
rations are hereby prohibited from carry or shipping oranges, lemons, limes, mangoes,
alligator pears, guavas, peaches or other soft-ineated fruits grown on said island of
Oahu to any other island in the territory.

SEC. 2. Any person or corporation violating the above rule shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine not to exceed five hundred dollars, as
provided by section 390 of the Revised Laws of Hawaii as amended by Act 82 of the
Session Laws of 1905 and Act 112 of the Session Laws of 1907.

SEC. 3. This regulation shall take effect from and after the approval thereof by
the Governor.
Approved :

W. F. FREAR,
Governor of Hawaii.
Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. November 21, 1910.

A IV \\ test ii IK in i nls as to the seriousness of this pest :

FROGGATT : INSECTS OP AUSTRALIA.

* The Mediterranean Fruit Fly (C. capitata), first recorded
from oranges brought from the Azores to London; was described by
^ladeay in 1826; it has a wide range, and was introduced in New South
\Yales some time ago; it is one of the most serious pests that orchardists
have to fight.

LEA : INSECTS AND FUNGUS PESTS OF ORCHARD AND FARM, TASMANIA.

In Australia there are two very serious pests of fruit that
have not yet established themselves in Tasmania. These are the Queens-
land Fruit Fly (T. tryoni) and the Mediterranean Fruit Fly (C. capi-
tata). They both attack ripening fruit, and in some parts practically
destroy the entire fruit crops.

ANNUAL REPORT, 1908, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, NEW ZEALAND.
T. W. KIRK. Biologist.,

Mediterranean Fruit Fly (Ceratitis capitata). This destructive pest
is most commonly found in imported fruit, and no variety seems to be
immune from its attacks. The latest of its hosts has been shown to be
figs. A consignment of figs was condemned on its arrival at Wellington,
and from 17 figs 241 flies were bred out.

DESCRIPTION OF MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY.
From Bulletin No. 24, by WALTER FROGGATT, Department of Agriculture, N. S. W.

Ceratitis capitata, in the first place, is a citrus fruit pest, but as it
has spread has learned to feed upon all kinds of fruit; and after the
orange may be known as a peach pest. At the present time there is
hardly any kind of fruit that it has not been bred from, so that any list
of infested fruit is quite superfluous. In fact, they have been bred from
a number of native fruits; but the native fruits are so rare, compara-
tively speaking, in the greater part of the fruit-growing districts of
Australia, that they are not an important x'actor in the spread of the
pest, and are more likely to be infested themselves from an adjacent
orchard than to be a center of infection to the orchard. Ceratitis capi-
tata has been described in a more or less imperfect manner a great many
times, but it is better known from the beautiful colored figures published
by Macleay, and again by Breme, when he called it C. kispanica. As
several new species have been added to the members of this genus, and
some confusion exists about the identity of the earlier described species,
I propose not to give a scientific description, but a popular one, that any
one can grasp with the insect before them.

Size, four to five mm., about the size of an average house fly, but
looking somewhat smaller when dead, because the body shrinks up
beneath the thorax. General color, ochreous yellow, lighter on the sides
of thorax and basal joints of the antenna1. The eyes of the usual red
dish-purple tint, with a blackish blotch in the center of the forehead
from which spring two stout black bristles, a fine fringe of simila
bristles round the hind margin of the head, with some coarser on

-

curving around in front of the head between the eyes. The thickened
basal joints of the antenna? pale yellow, the terminal segments black to
the tips. The dorsal surface of the thorax convex, raised, and broadly
rounded with the scutellum, the ground color creamy white to yellow,
marbled with shining black blotches forming an irregular mosaic pat-
tern, the lighter portions clothed with very fine white bristles. These
light-colored bristles more lightly scattered over the dark areas, and the
whole bearing large, stout black bristles thickest on the black surface.

In many of the pictures of this insect the black areas are drawn as if
they were projecting bosses or knobs, but this is incorrect; the whole
forms a regular rounded surface.

The wings are broad, semi-opaque, with the extreme base blotched
with ochreous or brownish yellow, with the rest of the basal area curi-
ously marked with black, forming dark lines of the radiating nervures
with dark lines and spots between; beyond this is a broad, irregular
transverse ochreous band, slightly lined with black, blotched at the
extremity ; another similar shaped and colored blotch runs along inside,
but not in contact with the costal nervure, also black toward the extrem-
ity in the angular space. Between these bands is another shorter black
band running paralled with the first transverse band.

The oval abdomen is clothed on the upper surface with fine, scattered
black bristles, and has two rather broad transverse silvery white bands
on the basal half of the body. The male differs from the female in
being furnished with a pair of stalked appendages standing out in front
of the head in a line with the front margin of the eyes, the extremities
of which filaments are produced into spatulate appendages black, finely
striated, and diamond shaped.

The living fly is an active little creature, running about over the
foliage or fruit on the trees, with its wings drooping down on the sides
of the body. When disturbed it has a short flight, seldom flying more
than a few yards at the most, and it often returns to the same spot.

THE MELON FLY (Dacus Cucurbitae).

During the month of July, 1902, the writer was in the Hawaiian
Islands, and on seeing suuie fine-looking watermelons in a Honolulu
market, inquired the price as an intending purchaser. Imagine the
surprise on being informed by the shopman that they were one dollar
apiece. We afterward learned that this was due to the ravages of a
fruit fly, commonly called the Melon Fly (Dacus cucurbit ce-) and was
told that it was practically impossible to raise melons or cucumbers
except under glass or cloth, and that tomatoes are nearly as seriously
infested.

This pest attacks practically all the cucurbits, tomatoes, string beans,
etc., also some fruits. We have taken it in consignments from the
Hawaiian Islands in the quarantine office at San Francisco in the fol-
lowing: Tomatoes, mangoes, cucumbers, squashes, and string beans.
The writer personally counted 79 maggots in a single tomato in a ship-
ment from Honolulu. So serious do we consider the danger from the
introduction of this pest into California, that a quarantine order has
been issued refusing admittance to California to all fruit or vegetables
known to be subject to its attack.

'

The following is the order as issued by the State Commissioner of
Horticulture :

QUARANTINE ORDER, NO. 4.

Pertaining to the Melon Fly (Dacus cucurbitte).

SACRAMENTO, March 28, 1910.

WHEREAS, From information that has been received by this Commission, and the
fact having been duly determined by the Commission, it appears that a certain fruit
and vegetable fly known as Dacus cucurbita is prevalent in the Hawaiian Islands,
and very destructive to watermelons, muskmelons, cucumbers, and tomatoes on these
islands, and that the said Dacus cucurbita is not known to exist in the State of Cali-
fornia ; and

WHEREAS, The introduction of this fly into the State would entail great and irrep-
arable losses to the horticultural products subject to its attacks ; and

WHEREAS, The most rigid inspection can not determine the presence of the larva
maggot of this fly without the destruction of the fruit or vegetable which may be
infected ; therefore

It is ordered, That a horticultural quarantine be, and is hereby established against
watermelons, muskmelons, cucumbers, and tomatoes imported from the Hawaiian
Islands or other territory known by the State Commission to contain infection of the
Dacus cucurbitce, and all deputies of the State Commission of Horticulture, County
Horticultural Commissions, and horticultural quarantine officers are hereby instructed
to hold all such fruits or vegetables above described for exportation out of the State
or to be destroyed, as may be directed by the owner or consignee.

J. W. JEFFREY,

State Commissioner of Horticulture.
Approved :

J. N. GILLETT,

Governor of the State of California.

WARNING.

After reading the facts herein presented, we can not see how any
patriotic, thinking citizen of California, or, for that matter, of any state
or country, could knowingly aid any condition or circumstance that
would possibly result in the introduction of this fly, either to this or any
other state.

It is plain that shippers of fruit, and those directly or indirectly
interested in this industry, will not be guilty of in any way causing its
establishment. The danger, therefore, lies with the unacquainted,
unthinking traveling public, who, in making a pleasure trip to the
islands, or from the Orient, will bring in fruit to their friends, or for
their own use.

It is undoubtedly your duty to spread information as to the real
danger that now exists to California's great fruit industry from such
unintentional carelessness.

We, therefore, solicit the aid of all of those interested to join with us
in sounding at once a note of warning that may avert the catastrophe
which seems imminent.

MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY ; ALL STAGES.

After C. W. Mally, Cape Town.
NOTE. — We are indebted to the Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry!
tj^ . of Honolulu, Hawaii, for the use of the two plates illustrating the Fruit Fly in thisj
i^ leaflet.

I

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