SAWI^LIES, ANTS, WASPS, BEES, ETC. iii 



a reddish brown, and the body which tapers to a 

 fine point, is a creamy colour. Sometimes the 



females left their vv^ings behind either in the shell 

 of the floret, inside the fig, or after they reached 

 the outer surface of the fig. They are quick- 



walking insects and can get over the surface of 

 figs and leaves very smartly — they either walk or 

 fly to other figs. They carry pollen on their 



bodies to another fig, where, in walking among the 

 florets they lay the eggs in some of them, and at the 

 same time dust pollen on to the female florets. 

 The wingless males never leave the figs. On one 

 occasion we cut open a fruit of a Moreton Bay fig 

 tree and disturbed dozens of little metallic green- 

 ish chalcid wasps with a ;'very long ovipositor. 

 (Idarnis australis)- These wasps scrambled out of 

 their pupal homes, and as quickly as possible and 

 one after another, they bent the ovipositor and took 

 a flying leap out of the fig without even waiting 

 for their wings to dry. Then they exercised their 

 wings in the open. They reminded us of a number 

 of children jumping off a spring-board in the baths. 

 Mr. Froggatt, in ''Friendly Insects," thus sums up 

 the micro-hymenoptera, to which the clialcids be- 

 long :— 



"They comprise thousands of the most beautiful 

 and often most curiously formed little creatures in 

 the insect world ; while some are rich in bright, 

 metallic tints, others are dressed in black, with the 

 usual prim wasp-like form. They differ from the 

 i former groups in structure of the antennae, and in 

 having hardly any cross or parallel veins in tiie 



