on the caprification of domestic figs. 103 



selnden Mengen von Pollen behaftet) that could only 

 have reached the secluded female inflorescence from 

 without. This causes such " Pedagnuoli" to produce 

 fertile seed in great abundance, which, as a rule, cannot 

 be expected in figs which no insect has fecundated (sich 

 keines Insektenbesuches erfreuten — Solms, pp. 37, 38). 



I may here observe also that the cleansing process 

 habitually practised by the Blastophaga on issuing from 

 the wild-fig, is no less applicable to the Idarnella 

 Caricce {nuper Idarnodes Westw., Trans. Ent. Soc. 

 Lond., 1883, Errata, p. viii.), according to my Smyrna 

 correspondent, who states : — " I have seen both Chalcis 

 and Blastophaga clean themselves carefully as soon as 

 they had emerged from their prison." 



Fourthly — Dr. Mayer seems to think that, in adverting 

 to Godeheu de Eiville's assertion, and to the Count's 

 remark thereon, I treated that passage as applicable to 

 ivild-figs ; whereas the whole tenor of my argument in 

 that paragraph served to show that, in so far as could 

 be gathered from the Count's recital, there was appa- 

 rently! no corresponding evidence bearing upon ripe 

 domestic-figs ; and that neither the Count himself nor 

 others — save as alleged by this one antiquated writer — 

 had found any Blastoyhagce in the latter (cited by Solms 

 as "in den reifen Feigen " — p. 21), the icild-figs being their 

 natural habitat. 



Finally Dr. Mayer tells us the Count and himself had 

 anticipated that, after the appearance of their works, 

 entomologists would take an interest in this apparently 

 hitherto neglected field — where, however, other pioneers 

 had not been wanting to stimulate researches in this 

 direction. He then laments over technical complica- 

 tions in synonymy, &c. ; dwelling also on the supreme 

 importance of anatomical investigations for the dis- 

 crimination of sexual characters ; whence we arrive at 

 the gist of his argument, in the reflection which he 

 conceives to have been cast upon himself, in being 

 supposed to confound the male of Cavolini's Ichneumon 

 Hcarius with the subapterous female of Sycoscapter in- 

 signis ; maintaining his accuracy, not only on ana- 

 tomical grounds, but also as having witnessed the union 

 of the former with its long-tailed winged partner, so 

 that no mistake can exist thereon. He will however 

 have been gratified to perceive, from Professor West- 

 wood's subsequent memoir in our * Transactions ' (1883, 



