IIG LIFE STORIES OF AUSTRALIAN INSECTS. 



without any such mtervention. We had a 

 very interesting time watching the chalcid wasps 

 on the figs of the Port Jackson and Moreton Bay 

 trees. For several years in the months of Februar}' 

 and March we saw numerous wasps of species 

 Plcisfodoutcs froggatti, and two other species in 

 fewer numbers, in these figs. 



The males are usually yellow or orange in col- 

 our, wingless, and blind. (Plate 15, Figs, i and 4.) 

 If some of the smaller green figs be cut across and 

 then broken up and examined with the lens one 

 can see the curious female and male florets, and 

 others occupied by wasps — these Ave might call the 

 neuter florets. The female florets produce the tiny 

 fruits (seedlike). The wasps occupy their little 

 homes, and one can see the larva, pupa, and adult, 

 each in dififerent little compartments, for on breaking 

 the fig, the walls of some of the little neuter florets 

 are torn away. Many wasps were ready to emerge 

 and began moving the head and legs very slowly, 

 like a tired child being wakened from sleep. They 

 slowly pulled themselves out of the pupal chamber 

 with a few little "rests" in between. The females 

 seemed to be mature earlier than the males, for in 

 the young figs we opened there were more females 

 mature while only a few males came out ; in the 

 older figs the males were more numerous. 



The females are black (Plate 15, Fig. 2), and so 

 easily seen. They are active, winged, and have a 

 long slender ovipositor. The males can be dis- 

 tinguished from them, for they are of a gen- 

 eral deep cream colour, the head and thorax 



