CHALClDiE. 
175 
Walker also described Sycophila megastigmo ides and Mayr described 
Sycophaga breviventris from figs in India. The student should consult 
the original papers:—Westwood, T. E. S., 
London, 1840, Vol. II, p. 214; Westwood and 
Saunders, loc. cit., London, 1883, pp. 1, 
29, 375, 383; Westwood, loc. cit., 1882, 47 ; 
Mayr, Mittheilungen Zool. Stat. Neap el, 
III, 1882. 
These fig insects have been the subject 
of prolonged investigation in Europe and 
South America, and an unknown species 
which attacks Ficus roxburghii in Calcutta 
is discussed by Cunningham in an appendix 
to Volume I, of the Annals of the Botanic 
Garden, Calcutta. Cunningham finds that 
there are two crops of fruits yearly, some 
trees having receptacles containing gall 
flowers and males, others containing female 
flowers; in the gall flowers, which are 
peculiar structures, the fig insect lays its 
eggs, the larvse living in the gall and even¬ 
tually emerging in the winged condition. 
Fig. 90 —Sycobiella saunder.si On emergence they fly, couple, and the 
females endeavour to lay eggs. In search¬ 
ing for the gall flowers, the females enter 
the receptacles, including those containing female flowers, and 
endeavour to deposit eggs in the female flowers. As a result the 
enormous numbers of embryos in each receptacle develop, as if 
they were fertilised. The inference, naturally, is that the female 
insects carry pollen from the male flowers, but Cunningham concludes 
that this is not the case and that the female embryos develop 
parthenogenetically but only after the irritation produced by the 
attempts of the female fig insects to lay eggs in these flowers. The 
fig insect then plays the part of an irritant agent, producing effects 
equivalent to fertilisation and the fig plant produces, on behalf of 
the insect, special ‘ ‘flowers’ 5 in which the insect lays its eggs. The 
Chalcid then in this case is simply a gall insect, as the Cynipidce are, 
SYCOSCAPTA INSIGNIS MALE. 
{From Westwood.) 
