. Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture. Agriculture. THE MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY. 39 PARASITES. The very climatic and host conditions that have made the Medi- terranean fruit fly an unusually serious post in Hawaii and that, with crop conditions as they are, have made artificial methods of control impracticable, have been most favorable for an attempt at control by means of parasites. An abundance of the fruit fly upon which to feed and a climate permitting increase each month in the year have made conditions ideal. The search for and discovery of parasites, and their introduction an
. Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture. Agriculture. THE MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY. 39 PARASITES. The very climatic and host conditions that have made the Medi- terranean fruit fly an unusually serious post in Hawaii and that, with crop conditions as they are, have made artificial methods of control impracticable, have been most favorable for an attempt at control by means of parasites. An abundance of the fruit fly upon which to feed and a climate permitting increase each month in the year have made conditions ideal. The search for and discovery of parasites, and their introduction and establishment where previously there had been none, has been one of the entomological romances of the present time. The parasites now at work killing the fruit fly in Hawaii have been in- troduced by the Ha- waiian Board of Agri- culture and Forestry as a result of the Silvestri and the Fullaway- Bridwell expeditions to Africa. These two expedi- tions resulted in the establishment in the islands between May, 1913, and October, 1914, of four promis- ing parasites: one from South Africa,1 one from eastern Austra- lia,2 and two from Nigeria,3 West Africa. Of these, only one, the South African Opius, was discovered as a parasite of the Mediterranean fruit fly. The three others were found parasitizing other fruit flies, and they have adapted themselves in Hawaii to the Mediterranean fruit fly. None of them, however, has been known to attack the melon fly in the gardens in Hawaii. Large numbers of all the parasites have been reared and have been liberated in all parts of the islan'ds, until to-day they are well able to care for themselves. They have multiplied with remarkable rapidity and have unquestionably reduced the numerical. fit Fig. 30.—Diagrammatic drawing of a cross section of a coffee cherry to illustrate comparative ease with which the South African para- site can lay eggs in the fruit-fly larva: a, Coffee bean; 6, pulp destroyed by maggot; c, skin of cherry; d, maggot
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