xaxiy ) 
Cynips is described as rufous (corpus totum rufum), the C. Carice having 
an oviduct twice the length of the body (corpore duplo longior); whereas 
those found by Gravenhorst in the Hicus Carice of the Tyrol—constituting 
his genus Blastophaga—were black (nigro-eneus), aud their oviduct very short 
(longitudine dimide aut tertia partis abdominis). The specimens received 
from the Dardanelles correspond with the latter (B. grossorum, Gr.), both 
sexes being obtained from these figs, as, in other instances, from Montpellier 
and Corfu, although neither Hasselquist nor Gravenhorst detected the 
apterous males, which Mr. Calvert describes as ‘an insect that is found 
always on its side, the abdomen shaped like that of a shrimp, which it 
draws in.” They are occasionally found roaming within the fig with the 
abdomen partially deflexed, but are usually concealed in a recumbent 
attitude at the lower extremity of the stems to which the seed-vessels are 
affixed, the abdominal region recurved beneath the thorax and projecting 
beyoud the head. 
Mr. Calvert’s attention had also been directed to the subject of 
“ Caprification,” if practised in those parts, and to the popular traditions 
associated therewith. He says, “The Cynips, I am told by the natives, is 
said to promote the fructification of the fig; for this purpose, in plantations, 
one of the wild trees (or ‘ male fig,’ as it is also called) is planted in the 
proportion to seven or eight of the cultivated tree. Without the aid of the 
wild fig the cultivated tree is said to cast a portion of its fruit, which it can 
be made to retain by taking the above measures. The Cynips avoids the 
sun and comes from the figs in the evening and early morning; calm and 
fine weather is considered propitious for the Cynips to fructify the cultivated 
fig; wind and rain the contrary. I have cut open many of the cultivated 
figs in July, but have not detected the presence of the Cynips, or of any 
other insect or larva therein.” 
This coincides with M. Bernard’s remarks—cited by Prof. Westwood 
in his memoir on “ Caprification” in our ‘ Transactions’ (vol. 11. p. 214)— 
that he could never find the insect in the cultivated fig, and that in reality 
it did not quit the wild fig until the stamina were mature, and their farina 
dissipated ; adding that what they might have brought on their wings must 
be rubbed off in the little aperture which they form for themselves. 
All commentators, however, on this process—Linneus and Latreille 
among the number, but excepting Olivier—appear to have assumed a priort 
that the Cynips actually effects an entrance into the domestic figs (s’intro- 
duisent par Veil); although it is not to those matured in July, when this 
process is resorted to, but to the subsequent crop obtained from the same 
trees the following month, that their influence is ascribed. To these later 
figs Mr. Calvert’s researches were also extended, with the same negative 
result; for he states (Sept. 21st), “I have examined many of the August 
figs in all stages, and cannot find a trace of the Cynips. The only insect 
