548 HYMENOPTERA 



CHAP. 



are still gathered at certain seasons and suspended amongst the 

 branches of the cultivated fig-trees. The young fig is a very- 

 remarkable vegetable production, consisting of a hollow, fleshy 

 receptacle, in which are placed the extremely numerous and 

 minute flowers,. the only admission to which is by a small orifice 

 at the blunt end of the young fig ; this orifice is lined with pro- 

 jecting scales, that more or less completely fill it up or close it ; 

 nevertheless inside this fruit the Blastophaga grossorum develops 

 in large numbers. The males are, as we have seen, wingless 

 creatures, and do not leave the fruit in which they were bred, 

 but the females make their way out of the wild fig, and some 

 of them, it is believed, enter the young fruit of the cultivated 

 trees and lay their eggs, or attempt to do so, therein ; and it 

 has been supposed by various writers that these proceedings are 

 essential to the satisfactory development of the edible fruit. It 

 is a curious fact that the Blasto^liaga develops very freely in 

 the wild fig so much so, indeed, as to be a means of preventing 

 it from coming to maturity ; but yet the Insect cannot complete 

 its development in the cultivated fruit. This is due to the fact 

 that the fly must lay its Qgg in a particular part of the fig- 

 ovule, so that when the ^gg hatches the larva may have a proper 

 supply of food. In the cultivated fig the structure of the flower 

 differs somewhat from that of the caprificus, as the wild fig is 

 called, and so the Q<gg^, if deposited at all, does not reach a proper 

 nidus for its development. Hence the Blastophaga can never live 

 exclusively on the cultivated fig, and if it be really necessary for 

 the development of the latter, must be brought thereto by means 

 of the caprifig. Whether the Blastojphaga be really of use, as has 

 been for so long supposed, is, however, a matter for doubt. The 

 reasons for this are (1) that those who think caprification bene- 

 ficial do not agree as to the mode in which they suppose it to be 

 so ; (2) that there is but little reason for believing that when 

 introduced amongst the cultivated figs the Blastophaga occupies 

 itself to any. great extent therewith ; and (3) that in some parts 

 of the world caprification is not performed, but the cultivated fig 

 nevertheless ripens its fruit there. Hence many writers on the 

 subject Solms-Laubach,^ Mayer ,^ and Saunders ^ entertain con- 

 siderable doubt as to whether caprification is at present anything 



^ Abh. Ges. Gottingen, xxviii. 1882. ^ j/-^-^^. Stat. Neapel, iii. 1882, p. 55. 



2 Tr. ent. Soc. London, 1883. p. 389. 



