The cloning and the characterization of the heat shock 70 (hsp70) genes of the medfly C. capitata, a major agricultural pest, are presented. Six genomic clones were isolated by screening a medfly genomic library with an hsp70 genomic fragment of Drosophila melanogaster. They form two 30 kb contigs, both of which map cytogenetically in a single major heat shock puff (3L:24C) of the salivary gland polytene chromosomes. Restriction mapping and blot hybridization indicated the presence of six putative hsp70 genes in these two closely linked regions. The sequence of one of these genes suggests that it is a heat-inducible hsp70 gene. The 638-codon open reading frame shows 84% identity at the amino acid level (73.5% at the nucleotide level), relative to corresponding D. melanogaster sequences. The 5' untranslated leader sequence, approximately 200 bp long, is not interrupted by introns and is very rich (48%) in adenine residues, resembling Drosophila heat-inducible hsp70 genes. Furthermore, the promoter of this gene contains two characteristic heat shock elements close upstream from the TATA box. The levels of the hsp70 transcripts are very low at 25-30 degrees C, increase significantly at 33 degrees C and reach maximum at 39 degrees C.