Abstract
Hermetia illucens (L.) damages young bananas by ovipositing between the fingers. However, larvae do not penetrate green fruit. Adults have a strong colour preference for yellow so perhaps accounting for the attraction to the gravid female of the greenish yellow freshly exposed hands of bananas. This fly completes its life cycle in dumps of reject bananas. Other dipterous activity appears to be inhibited in dumps with H. illucens larval populations. The histerid, Hololepta sp., near quadridentata (Olivier), and birds, Columba cayennensis Bonnaterre and Hirundo rustica L., are common predators of the pest.
