The Flight of Two Thousand Marked Male Mediterranean Fruit Flies (Ceratitis Capitata Wied.)

Abstract

Mally (1, p. 8) Entomologist for the Eastern Province, Cape Colony, South Africa, discusses the migration of the adult Mediterranean fruit fly as follows: “There is no evidence to show how far the adults will travel in their search for food. Some observers think they migrate but very little, citing instances where well-kept premises have been fairly free although in close proximity to neglected and badly infested ones. Under such conditions there is no necessity for migration, ample food-supply being already at hand. There is no clear evidence to show how they get to new orchards on farms where fruit trees have never been grown before. Men who have laid out new orchards say that the ’maggot’ was in evidence the first time the trees came into bearing. * * * It is a popular belief that the flies come in from the veld. The most unrelenting search has failed to demonstrate their presence in bush or veld 500 yards from an orchard.”