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THE FEMALE SYCAMORE FIG -WASP 



This wasp is less than one-eighth of an inch in length; its existence seems to depend wholly 

 on the sycamore fig. Its abdomen terminates in a long, slender tube, the ovipositor, 

 nicely adapted for reaching down into the fig flower and depositing an egg at its base. 

 In crawling through the small opening at the end of the fig, the female usually loses 

 her wings, and subsequently dies. When the young hatch, they develop rapidly, emerge 

 from the fig in which they were born, and the females fly to other figs, where they lay 

 their own eggs and then die. The fact that sycamore figs ripen throughout almost 

 the entire year, makes this life-cycle for the insect possible. While the existence of the 

 fig-wasp is made possible by the tree, it would appear that naturally the existence of 

 the tree is made almost impossible by the wasp, since it prevents seeds from developing 

 in the fruit and the species would, therefore, apparently die from inability to perpetuate 

 itself, were it not propagated by the farmers who want its fruit. (Fig. 4.) 



It is found that the ovipositor of the 

 former is quite short, consequently the 

 insect is able to deposit its eggs in the 

 ovaries of short-styled flowers only. 



The eggs are laid almost entirely in the 

 gall flowers of the caprifig. These gall 

 flowers are female flowers which have 

 become modified and adapted to the 



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