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JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 13 
Fig Pollination 
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 female, gnaws a hole through the cortex of the ovary 
at the base of the style and fertilizes the female while she is still in the 
gall. The gravid female enlarges the opening and sometimes makes 
another, usually at the base of the style, probably because it is the 
point of least resistance. In from 22 to 48 hours she leaves the gall, 
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 the same 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. She pushes her head under the thin edges, and 
after a short struggle makes her way down to the interior of the fig, 
generally leaving her wings behind. 
While one insect is probably sufficient to fertilize a fig, it is not 
unusual, where they are very abundant, to find a dozen or fifteen in 
one small fig, and as many more in a struggling mass trying to effect 
an entrance; often the cluster of wings can be seen radiating from the 
eye like the plumes of a miniature feather duster. If the caprifig 
from which the insect has issued has been hung in a Smyrna tree, she 
enters a Smyrna fig and then finds she has made a mistake, as the 
flowers are of such shape that she cannot oviposit in them, and after 
wandering about in a vain effort to dispose of her eggs, in this way 
doing her useful work of fertilizing the female flowers, in most cases 
she crawls out. When the weather is warm, say 90° to 100° F., the 
insects are very active and come out of the caprifig with a rush. 
The writer has seen forty issue in one minute. The issue takes place 
almost entirely in the forenoon, unless a cold windy morning is succeeded 
by a hot sun in the early afternoon, when a considerable number appear. 
The movement depends much upon the weather. During cool windy 
mornings very few issue, but if the next morning is warm, calm, and 
sunny, a great rush occurs. The insects continue to issue from a 
single fig for a week or ten days if the weather is favorable, and from 
the figs of various capri trees for two or three weeks. 
