36 Elementary Manual of Zoology. 
Cynipida (Gall wasps).—These are mostly minute  fly-like 
Hymenoptera, which the students need only be able to recognise in 
connection with the galls that they make. The female deposits her 
eggsin the tissues of plants, where irritation is set up, resulting ina 
morbid vegetable growth, or gall, in which the larva lives. The larves 
themselves are thick-set fleshy grubs. In some of the European species 
the life history is complicated by asexual reproduction’ not unlike 
what goes on amongst the Aphide. The Cynipide are of no great 
importance to the forester, but should be noticed on account of their 
gall-making habits, 
The School Museum contains specimens of Cynipid galls and of 
the insects which produce them. 
Blastophaga (Fig insects).—These minute insecte inhabit figs and 
are of considerable importance, as they are believed to be essential to 
enable reproduction to take place in many species of the genus frcus. 
As observed by Cunningham in the case of Ficus Roxburghii, the 
females are winged, the males wingless. They are to be found some- 
times in vast numbers in the interior of figs, and the students need 
obly be able to recognise them in this connection. 
The eggs are laid and the grubs develop in the ovaries of the aborted 
female flowers in the interior of the male fig capsule. Copulation takes 
place in the interior of the fig capsule, where the insects are bred. The 
male insects cuta passage out of the figs through the pollen-bearing 
flowers. After this the males die or are eaten up by ants, while the 
females escape by the passage. After flying about for a time the females 
are said to force their way into a young fig, which may be one con- 
taining either male or female flowers. Here the irritation which they 
set up by their movements, and possibly also the stimulus caused by 
the pollen which they are likely at least in some cases to bring 
with them from the male fig capsule where they were bred, cause 
the growth of the capsule and the development of seed. The 
females are only able to oviposit successfully in the male capsules, 
but neither the male nor the female capsules of Freus Rowburghii can 
develop unless they are penetrated by the insect. Figs which are not 
so penetrated drop off and perish. The case of Ficus Roxburghii is 
believed to be typical of the relation between the Blastophaga and 
trees of the genus Ficus generally, in which case the part played by 
these insects in Indian forests must be very important. A plentiful 
supply of fresh figs infested with multitudes of Blastophaga can 
usually be picked up in the autumn from trees on the Rajpore Road 
in Dehra, 
Ichneumonida.—These parasitic insects may be recognised by the long 
slender body and many-jointed antenna. The female usually has a 
Jong protruding ovipositor. The egg is deposited by the parent insect 
