HYMENOPTERA 943 



Subfamily ORMYRIN^ 



The subfamily Omiyrinre has gone also under the names Tory- 

 minae and Callimominae. Most species are more or less metallic 

 green with compressed abdomens and long ovipositors. They are 

 parasitic largely on cynipid and cecidomyiid gall insects. The com- 

 monest genus is Callimome (= Torymus). Although most of its 

 species are parasites of gall insects, Callimome drupdrum infests the 

 seeds of apple. For a revision of the genus see Huber, Proc. U. S. 

 Nat. Mus. 1927, vol. 70, art. 14, 144 pages. Monodontomerus is para- 

 sitic upon a great variety of hosts. Megastigmus includes brownish 

 species with a large black stigma in the fore wing. The larvae develop 

 in seeds. Some are common in rose hips, and others destroy the seeds 

 of coniferous forest trees. See Crosby ('09). Podagrion is a parasite 

 in the eggs of Mantidae. The genus Ormyrus is parasitic on gall in- 

 sects. It has the abdomen tapering to a conical tip and peculiar 

 bands of large punctures on the tergites. The ovipositor is not ex- 

 serted. 



Subfamily AGAONTIN^ 

 The Fig Insects 



This subfamily is composed of those remarkable insects that live 

 within figs and fertilize them. It is represented in the United States 

 by a single species, Blastophaga psenes, that was introduced into Cali- 

 fornia in order to make possible the production of the Smyrna fig in 

 that state. 



The fruit of the fig tree consists of a hollow receptacle on the Hning 

 of which the flowers are borne. At the apex of the fig there is a more 

 or less distinct opening leading into the interior. It is through this 

 opening that the female fig insect leaves the fig in which she was 

 developed and enters a young fig in order to oviposit. 



The eggs are laid at the base of a modified form of pistillate flower, 

 known as gall-flower, that is found in wild figs, and the larvae produce 

 little galls in which they develop. The female fig insect when leaving 

 the fig in which she was developed becomes covered with pollen 

 which is carried into the young fig which she enters to oviposit, and 

 thus the flowers in this fig are fertilized. 



The male fig insect is wingless. It crawls about over the galls 

 in the fig in which it was developed, and when it finds a gall containing 

 a female it gnaws a hole in it and then thrusting the tip of its abdomen 

 through the puncture fertilizes the female. 



It is only in the wild figs that the gall-flowers are developed. For 

 this reason only the wild figs are suitable for the development of the 

 fig insects. But the female insect will enter the cultivated figs seeking 

 a place to oviposit and will thus fertilize them. 



Although the numerous varieties of common cultivated figs do 

 not require the stimulus of pollination and the resulting fertilization 

 of the ovary to make the fruit set, in the case of the Smyrna fig, which 



