SAWFLIES, ANTS, WASPS, BEES, ETC. 115 



of the chalcids and the fruit of fig trees. In the 

 wild figs of Asia Minor there is a kind of 

 commensalism of the fig and fig wasp (Blastophaga 

 grossorum). The fig is a hollow enlarged receptacle 

 with a tiny opening at the apex, called the ostiole." 

 (Plate 15, Fig. 6 a.) Within the receptacle are 

 many tiny florets or fig flowers, male, female and 

 neuter. The neuter florets are altered female- 



florets, in each of which a mother-wasp lays an 

 Ggg. A tiny wasp maggot hatches out and feeds 

 on the tissues of the neuter floret. It pupates m 

 it, having eaten all the substance of the floret ex- 

 cept the shell which makes a little pupal chamber 

 (Plate 15, Fig. 3) where it changes into the adult 

 chalcid. 



The female wasps pass in and out of the figs, 

 laying eggs in them, and in this passing from fig to 

 fig, they carry the pollen of the male florets to the 

 female florets which are fertilized and thus im- 

 prove the quality of the figs. The common cul- 

 tivated fig called the "Ficiis type" has no male florets, 

 and many fruit growers of Italy, Greece, and Asia 

 Minor cut branches of the uncultivated fig, 

 the Caprificus type, which have male florets pre- 

 sent, and they hang them on the branches of the 

 cultivated tree (Ficus) believing that the wasps will 

 visit their figs and increase the growth (by carry- 

 ing pollen and causing fertilization). This is called 

 "Caprification of figs." 



Certain species of edible preserving figs will only 

 ripen well with the aid of wasps, causing fertiliza- 

 tion, but the ordinary edible figs will ripen 



