100 Sir S. S. Saunders' /nri/ier nofes 



have retrograded. After usually attempting to pierce a 

 very small number of florets, conscious of her mistake, 

 she quits the fig by the ostiolum, between whose scales 

 she frequently remains affixed and terminates her 

 existence (haufig stecken bleibt und verendet) ; her egg 

 being found in very different places according to circum- 

 stances ; occasionally hanging loose, as described by 

 Gasparrini ; in other cases more or less tightly thrust 

 down in the semi-pierced channel ; sometimes even in a 

 reversed position, with the pedicel in front stove in 

 (Solms, pp. 36, 37). 



Hence it would seem that in the Caprificus figs the 

 female Blastophaga usually continue depositing their ova 

 until at length they die exhausted within the interior of 

 the fig, where their bodies, in fact, are found (schliess- 

 lich gehen sie daun peractis peragendis zu Grunde, 

 haufig erst beim Versuch den Ausweg aus der Profico 

 wieder zu gewinnen — Solms, p. 21) ; whereas in the 

 domestic figs, having become speedily aware of their 

 error, they are earlier disposed to retreat, and thus 

 effect their escape betimes, unless entrapped by the 

 obstructing scales when quitting. 



But the disqualification of these domestic figs for the 

 reception of the ova has yet to be considered; for 

 although partial desiccation may still influence the 

 result of actual investigation, as already suggested, yet 

 the absence of progeny under ordinary circumstances, 

 after the ingress effected by these insects consequent 

 upon caprification, would seem to indicate some ana- 

 chronism in the respective stages of these figs, as com- 

 pared with those of the Caprificus where no such 

 obstacles are encountered. Thus, whereas the first 

 matured ci^op of the latter (so-called " Mamme") passes 

 the winter on the trees and ripens early in April ; the 

 earliest domestic figs (the " Fiori di Fico") still in their 

 infancy, whose trees had not incurred the depletion of a 

 hibernating crop, would be more forward in their growth, 

 and their internal organism presumably less accessible 

 to the delicate function of oviposition, than the budding 

 " Projichi'' — or second crop of wild-figs — to which the 

 Blastopliagce then emerging from the winter-figs are 

 accustomed to resort for the development of their off- 

 spring. This relative retardation in the one case would 

 operate to a corresponding extent upon the successive 

 crop of wild-figs in June and July, when the females of 



