The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1910-10-28
FRUIT TRADE is
Affected BY FLY.
Appearance of Pest on Oranges
May Stop Expectation in
Some Instances.

What is evidently considered to be a
dangerous enemy TO soft meated fruits
has been proven to exist here, accord
ing to a report of Entomologist E. NJ.
Ehrhorn, presented to the board of agri-
culture and forestry yesterday after
noon The discovery Of this pest, the
Mediterranean fruit ny, may cause the
promul CATION of ruling which will
seriously affect fruit expectations from
this island.
After reading his report yesterday,
Mr. Ehrhorn presented a rule to be added
to those promulgated by the board
which is calculated TO prevent the eX-
portation of all fruits of certain descrip-
ton from this island to any other is
land IN the group. After the board s
appreciation of the rule had been shown,
Mr.. Campbell suggested that the rule
be applied to mainland ports as well,
thus stopping the Coast trade in many
of the Hawaiian fruits which find a
market there.
Pineapples and bananas, however,
will not be affected by this rule as
they are said TO be immune from the
attacks of the pest. Alligator pears
are in the doubtful Inst but evidences
of it's appearance in this case have
been discovered and it may be that ex.
portation of this fruit may yet be
forbidden.
The rule, on motion, was submitted
to the Governor and attorney-g general
for such corrections as they may see
fit andy upon this being done it Will
become effective. In his report, Mr..
Ehrhorn states:
"From the reports of various grow
ers and from the present distribution
of the pest we have come to the con
clusion that the pest was introduced
several years ago. Judge Cooper of
Manoa reports that about three years
ago he submitted affected oranges to
the U. S. Experiment Station and the
board of agriculture and that at that
time the blemlsh on the fruit was con-
sidered only a bruise. This is not i'm
possible, for when the fruit is first
attacked and the larvae have not
broken through the skin, that juices
issue, the affected part has close re-
semblance to a bruise. Only on cut
ting open the affected portion and find
ing maggots, would any suspicion be
aroused Very often after the mag
gots have escaped, especially is this
true of very dry orange, the remain
ing dark spot resembles bruise. Judge
Cooper's observation of the condition
of the fruit at that time tallies with
his observations today and we find the
maggot present in great numbers. a
party from Kalihi reports finding or.
anges with bruises (maggots) in Au-
gust of last year and brought me
specimens from the locality in the be-
ginning of September of this year from
which l reared the fruit fly.
capri 2 of this year, Mr.. Black
man of Kaimuki brought in few or
anges which contained maggots of diff
fefent size. These 1 placed in a
breeding jar and on April L visited
Mr.. Blackman 5 place to further study
the trouble. l procured more speci.
mems and observed the melon fly rest
ing IN the trees. From the material
collected we reared mostly drosophil.
lids, which feed on fermenting juices
but we also reared one adult melon
fly. Nothing further was thought OF
this matter because we found that
many of the oranges on the trees
showed thorn injury and We came to
the conclusion that this had attracted
the melon fly.
con June 81 d. 7. Fullaway of the
United States Experiment Station
brought an adult of the Mediterranean
fruit fly INTO my office and reported
finding it in his insectary, which is
all screened with fine mesh wire. He
could not account for the appearance
of the fly and to his knowledge nc
materials of any kind had been brought
in from outside countries. On account
of this | again visited Mr.. Blackman !
place, the only place where oranges
had been found infested with mag
gots, but failed to find any trace OF
further damage to his fruit. 1t was
not until September of this year thai
it was definitely determined that the
fruit fly was here when Mr.. Terry anC
Doctor Perkins of the Hawaiian sugai
planters association experiment sta
ton found some adult flies on the win
dow of the laboratory. Mr.: Terry
made a diligent search in several local
tiles and found some oranges and lime
on the slope of Punchbowl which wer,
punctured and contained maggots.
also continued my Investigations an(
found infested oranges in the vicin
ity of Makiki frehouse, Kewalo, XII
nau and Keeaumoku streets. From al
this mfterial we succeeded in raising
the adult Mediterranean fruit fly"
From my observations 1 may stat,
that the mandarin orange, lime and tn,
common seeding orange appear to b,
4, attacked quite severely, whereas tn
( navel orange is only slightly attacked
I l have also failed to find any othe
1 fruits attacked by the pest and fur
Their observations viii be necessary t,
determine what damage this fly will d,
to our island fruits. There seems t,
be quite a discrepancy in the record o
the food of this pest as reported b.
writers in various countries and w
shall no doubt be able to find out man,
new phases from our investigations. >
attntHAar ~ AthIHt ~