of new Fig-Insects. 19 



was not extended to them ; while admitting that "if we 

 emplo}^ terms founded upon the habits of the different 

 families " (as in this instance) " we must introduce the 

 gall-flies amongst the plant-feeders (Phytiphaga) " — (Mod. 

 Class, ii., p. 124). 



With reference to the dentate genital claspers adverted 

 to "asa further illustration of the relationship between 

 some of the fig-insects and other well-known parasitic 

 Clialcidida" (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1882, pp. 325, 326), 

 I would observe that this character can have no appli- 

 cation to tribal distinctions, inasmuch as its presence alike 

 in the germ-feeding Sycophaga and in several of its para- 

 sitic associates, having no kindred connections therewith, 

 must serve to discountenance any such inference ; while 

 the absence of similar retinacula in the corresponding sex 

 of Callimome does not enhance its claim to be regarded as 

 allied to Sycophaga. This, however, is a character which 

 has been very little studied hitherto, and may be found to 

 have a wider application, irrespective of family associa- 

 tions. 



Hence it follows that, whether looking to structural 

 endowments or correlative propensities, these fig-dwellers 

 of the phytophagous broods are in nowise disqualified 

 for their ancestral status by the results of such an 

 ordeal, any more than by their adopted habitat, for, as 

 Hasselquist observes, " Gallce locum obtinet helc ficus " ; 

 the severance of the respective races being readily effected 

 by the light of analogy ; or if, indeed, the results thus 

 obtained should in any instance prove fallacious, the 

 remedy is obvious, such liability, however, being of 

 minor import than the inconsistency involved in the 

 promiscuous intermingling of alien races consequent 

 upon an innovation of the last decade, founded on mis- 

 conception, and irreconcilable with probationary tests. 



In reverting, therefore, to their time-honoured kinship, 

 the Cynipidce, would be divisible into three subfamilies, (1) 

 the Sycophagides, (2) the Cecidophagides, and (3) the 

 Heterophagid.es, or aphidivorous Cynipidce * constituting, 

 as long since suggested by Prof. Westwood (Mod. Class. 

 ii., p. 124), "the connecting link " with the aphidivorous 

 Braconides ; the hitherto known fig-feeders being tabu- 

 lated as follows : — 



* The tendency of such heteroclites to revert to their ancestral 

 habits is well exemplified in the instance cited by Dr. Harris, and 

 referred to by Prof. Westwood in his ' Memoir' on the " Euryto- 

 mides " (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1882, p. 311), when " some of 

 these insects that came from a straw-bed, and were shown to Dr. 



