320 Sir S. S. Saunders on Apocrypta, &;€. 



5-artIciilatis, unguiculis tenellis. Pedes postici robiisti ; 

 femoribiis ut in anticis valde incrassatis ; tibiis brevibus, 

 excurvis, apice dilatatis, angnlo externo biuncinnato ; tarsis 

 /i-articulatis, articulis mediocribus, basali et extimo longi- 

 oribns, nnguiculis validis. 



Abdomen elongatum, snbter tliorace plicatile ; basi tho- 

 racis latitudine, medio latins ; segmentis 7 ; basalibus 4 

 A-aldc inflatis, sensim deflexis ; reliqnis tnbubim tenue, 

 rectum, compressum, apice obtusum, constituentibus, intra 

 quod genitalibus retractilibus. 



Uab. — Europa meridionali, in Ficus Caricse grossis. 



Gravenliorst considered tlie females of bis B. f/rossorum 

 to correspond with Pontedera's unnamed species (Anth. 

 lib. 2, p. 172, tab. xi.); but certainly not coinciding with 

 either the Cynifs Ficus or the C. Caricce of Hasselquist, 

 which he thought distinct inter se. Pontedera S]5eaks of 

 finding both sexes of his species ; defining the females as 

 having an exserted ovipositor ; whence his figures, as 

 wanting this organ, have been sup])osed to represent the 

 males ; but he appears to have mistaken mutilated females, 

 reft of their oviduct, for the other sex. 



Gravenhorst has not described the mouth-parts in the 

 female of i?. grossorum, as not distinctly visible; with the 

 exception of the outlying appendages, Avliich he supposed 

 to be iiulpi, but which Professor Westwood, in treating of 

 B. Sycomori, 2, has shown to be affixed to the base of 

 the mandibles. In the jMontpellier specimens the mandu- 

 catory organs of the female agree with those of B. Syco- 

 mori ; the mandibles being subquadrate and bidentate at 

 the apex (like those of the male), externally ciliated, and 

 furnished at the base, towards the inner angle, with an 

 elongate, corneous, exarticulate, compressed spatvda, trans- 

 versely 5- to 7-serrated, projecting obliquely backwards 

 under the head, gradually increasing in width and termi- 

 nating in a broad rounded apex. 



These remarkable appendages, nearly as wide as the 

 mandibles themselves to which they are firmly attached, 

 and more elongate, may possibly serve to relieve the latter 

 by facilitating their opening when clogged with the viscous 

 juices of the fig; the sharj) transverse serratures in these 

 spatulre — obliquely inclined — with the interstices sloping 

 towards the thorax, affox'ding a ready means of propelling 

 the same, and, with them, the inner region of the man- 

 dibles, by the action of the dilated anterior tibiaj. 



