SMYRNA FIG CULTURE. LS 
erub. After many unsuccessful attempts, the insect was sent over to 
the United States from northern Africa in 1899 by Walter 'T. Swingle, 
of the United States Department cof Agriculture. Success was due 
to avoiding methods which had previously often failed by confining 
the efforts to the winter generation and, by the ingenious device of 
wrapping each caprifig in tin foil to prevent evaporation. It was 
discovered later, however, that the Blastophaga was already here, 
having been accidentally mtroduced with fig trees from southern 
Europe about 1865, but this did not become known to orchardists 
until 1908, having been, so far as known, confined to an isolated tree 
10 miles west of Modesto and one or two others in the vicinity of 
Lathrop, Cal. (50, 54). 
In California the insect, which hibernates in the larval form 
during the previous 
few months, reaches 
“maturity: in April. 
The male leaves the 
gall first. He moves 
about the interior of 
the fig, and, finding a 
gall containing a fe- 
male, gnaws a _ hole 
through the cortex of 
- the ovary at the base 
of the style and fer- 
tilizes the female while 
she is still in the gall. 
The gravid female en- 
larges the opening and Fic. 7.—Blastophaga psenes: a, Egg; b, young larva; c, outline of 
some times makes an- says llestrzs)| full-grown larva; e, mouth of full-grown 
other, usually at the 
base af the style, probably because it is the point of least resistance. 
In from 22 to 48 hours she leaves the gali, reaching the open air 
through the cluster of male flowers, the anthers of which at this 
time have burst and are shedding large quantities of pollen. Her 
body is moist and sticky and she is frequently so loaded with pollen 
that she is unable to fly until she divests herself of much of it in 
thesame way that the common house fly strokes its body with its legs. 
After being relieved of part of the load, she flies to the nearest fig, 
and if it be in the right condition she immediately seeks the opening 
at the apex. At this time the figs are hard and from a quarter to 
three-quarters of an inch in diameter and the eye is closed by the 
overlapping scales. Some authors assert that with her powerful 
mandibles she is obliged to cut away a portion of one of these scales 
_ to effect an entrance; but this is unnecessary, as she is able to push 
her head under the thin edges and after a struggle of sometimes five 
