Figs 5 



still immature females, impregnate them and shortly 

 die within the fig, as did the mother wasp. 



Their sisters, the female wasps, are darker, of a 

 brown color and winged. In due course they hatch 

 and immediately set about leaving the cavity of the 

 fig within which there is no room for them to spread 

 their wings. To reach the orifice of the fig they must 

 pass the male flowers and become dusted with the 

 pollen that matures at the very time of their hatching 

 and departure. 



Once in the open air their wings soon dry and each 

 young female wasp is off in search of an immature 

 fig in which to deposit eggs. A suitable one found, the 

 wasp proceeds to cut a notch in one of the outer scales 

 for better access, then makes its way inside. In the 

 process the wasp generally loses its wings. These are 

 apt to stick in the opening, so that an inhabitated fig 

 may be recognized by their presence. The pollen car- 

 ried by the insect is brushed off on the stigmas of the 

 long-styled flowers within. Eggs can be properly 

 placed only in figs of the Caprificus kind, where gall 

 flowers are present. 



Both the wild and the cultivated fig usually bear 

 three crops a year. As insects emerge from one crop 

 of maturing Caprifigs they ordinarily find green fruit 

 of the next crop ready to receive them. Each crop is 

 thus pollinated with pollen of the preceding crop. An 

 interval of about two months elapses between the en- 

 trance of the egg-laying fig wasp into the young fig 

 and the emergence of her progeny from the ripe one. 

 The same interval of time separates the receptive stage 

 of the female fig flowers and the ripening of the pollen 

 in the male flowers, completely excluding the possibility 

 of self-pollination. The last of the fig wasps of the 

 year deposit their eggs in young fruit which stays on 

 the trees until spring. 



[5] 



