108 THE FIG: ITS HISTORY, CULTURE, AND CURING. 
Blastophaga finds the fig eye closed by scales.’ But these seales are 
not impossible to penetrate. In order to enter the fig the Blasto- 
phaga saws out a tiny little piece of the outside edge of a top seale, 
which opens to her an entrance between twoscales. Next she pushes 
herself under the scale and then zigzags herself through, until she 
reaches the interior hollow of the fig. But her efforts to get through 
between the scales have been tremendous, and in so doing she almost 
invariably loses her wings. They are always lost in the very begin- 
ning of her work and can be seen remaining, wedged in between the 
outside seales just like feathers stuck under the band of a hat. In 
order to ascertain the presence of the Blastophaga in a green fig it is 
not always necessary to cut the fig open, as the presence of the wings 
of the wasp sticking between the scales is a sure sign that the wasp 
has succeeded in getting in. And even if the wings have fallen off, 
the little wound caused by the gnawing of the wasp can be told by 
the minute drop of sap that has oozed out and hardened. It is this 
drop of sap which was, remarkably enough, for ages considered as 
being the real cause of the setting of the figs. If no wings and no 
gum are seen on the scale it may be safely assumed that no Blasto- 
phaga has entered the fig in question. 
As soon as the now wingless Blastophaga has entered the fig she 
hurries down to the gall flowers, there to deposit her eggs. Of these 
she inserts only one in each flower. The egg is generally placed in the 
same way and in the same particular spot in the flower. This partic- 
ular place lies between the nuceilus of the fig ovary and the integu- 
ment surrounding it. Observation shows that if left anywhere else 
the egg will not develop. In order to accomplish this the wasp first 
alights on the stigma of the gall flower. Then she extends her ovipos- 
itor and runs it down through the canal which, from the center of the 
stigma, leads through the whole length of the style to the funnel or 
entrance to the ovary of the flower. This is penetrated by the ovipos- 
itor, and the egg is laid and securely wedged in between the nucellus 
of the ovary and the integument surrounding it. (See fig. 17.) 
As soon as the egg is deposited the ovipositor of the wasp is with- 
drawn. The lower part of the canal is filled by a filiform appendage 
of the egg, while the upper part fills with a brown exudation from the 
wounded cells. As soon as one egg has been laid the wasp departs 
to another flower, there to repeat the process. The egg-depositing 
power of a wasp is simply enormous, and one wasp is capable of lay- 
ing an egg in each of the many gall flowers of a fig. After the eggs 
have all been deposited the Blastophaga endeavors to regain the out- 
side of the fig in the same way she entered; but in this she rarely sue- 
ceeds. Being by the egg-laying process completely exhausted, she 
1The closing of the eye by scales is a necessity. If the eye was open the Blasto- 
phaga would find the fig full of other insects, and the function in the fig flowers 
would be seriously, if not fatally, interfered with. 
