502 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Dr. Howard called for a few remarks from Dr. Fox, who, as 

 mentioned in the paper just read, made the interesting discovery 

 that the decapitated heads of these ants were infested by Dipte 

 rous larvae. Dr. Fox, in responding, congratulated Mr. Pergande 

 for having worked out the life history of this parasite. Mr. Ash- 

 mead said he considered Mr. Coquillett fully justified in erecting 

 a new genus for this fly, whose peculiar structure was un 

 doubtedly correlated with its mode of life, so different from that 

 of other members of the family Phoridae. Specimens of this fly 

 were then passed around for the inspection of the members. 



The paper by Mr. Schwarz, then presented, was entitled : 



A SEASON'S EXPERIENCE WITH FIGS AND FIG-INSECTS IN 



CALIFORNIA. 



By E. A. SCHWARZ. 



The successful introduction of the Fig-insect ^Blastophaga 



frossorum} into California by Dr. L. O. Howard and Mr. W. T. 

 wingle, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, in the spring 

 of 1899, was followed in the year 1900 by a season of practical 

 experience and experiment at Fresno, Cal., which resulted in the 

 production of the first large crop of real Smyrna figs (i. e., figs 

 with fertile seeds) ever produced in America, the figs being of a 

 quality equal, or even superior to the figs imported from Asia 

 Minor. It was then demonstrated beyond any possible doubt that 

 the intervention of the Blastophaga is absolutely necessary to a pro 

 duction of a large crop of Smyrna figs (a few hundreds or even 

 thousands of figs can be successfully matured by the laborious 

 process of pollinating the figs by means of a blow-pipe). That 

 there was a chance of demonstrating this fact on a large scale in 

 America is solely due to the courage and foresight of Mr. Geo. 

 C. Roeding, of Fresno, Cal., who, alone of all the Californian 

 orchardists, kept up, at great expense, for more than ten years, 

 an extensive orchard (about 62 acres) of Smyrna fig trees without 

 deriving the slightest profit from it. 



THE SMYRNA FIG TREES. 



The annual cycle of the life history of the Blastophaga proves 

 to be a very simple one, but appears to be greatly complicated to 

 any one who has no knowlege of the natural history of the Smyrna 

 fig tree. The latter subject deserves to be more thoroughly 

 studied than has hitherto been done, and offers to a competent 

 student a wide field for important and novel observations. 



