Fig Wasp

February 24, 2021 Post a Comment

The beauty of the fig and wasp relationship is that figs produce a special enzyme called ficain or ficin which breaks down the female wasps exoskeleton after it pollinates the female fig. If the wasp climbs into a female fig the kind we eat she pollinates it but cannot lay her eggs and just dies alone.

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The female fig wasp enters the male fig we dont eat the male figs by the way to lay its eggs.

Fig wasp. If the fig is a male she lays her eggs inside. Then the female wasp lays its eggs inside the male fig and male and female wasp babies are born. The passage is so small the females wings and antennae break off.

The passage is so small the females wings. What we know as fig fruits are actually inverted flowers. In return the plant provides fig wasps with their only sources of food and shelter.

Those little insects are fig wasps and they play an essential role in the figs life cycle as the plants only pollinator. A fig is actually the stem of an inflorescence very enlarged and fleshy that surrounds the tiny flowers inside. Luckily for us the female fig produces an enzyme that digests this wasp.

The queen of the fig wasp is almost the perfect size for the jobexcept despite her tiny body she often times will lose her wings and antennae as she enters through a tight opening in the fig. A female wasp enters the male fig to lay its eggs through a small passage. What we call a fig a structure called the syconium is more inverted flower than fruit with all its reproductive parts located inside.

MUTUALISM - The intricate story of the exclusive relationship between the fig tree and the fig wasp which has existed for millions of years. The male fig is shaped in a way to accommodate the laying of wasp eggs. Male fig wasps are wingless a golden-brown colour and have an under-turned tail.

If the wasp climbs into a female fig she pollinates it but cannot lay her eggs and just dies alone. If she arrives in a male fig she is able to lay her eggs in an ideal environment and then dies. The fertilization process goes like this.

A female wasp enters the male fig to lay its eggs through a small passage. Here begins the story of the relationship between figs and fig wasps. Fig wasps live in urban areas forests and woodlands and anywhere native fig trees are found.

So once the female is in theres no way out. Which ones need itWhat role perform the symbiotic wasps Blastophaga psenesWhat is a caprifig tree and how does. Fig wasps are found throughout Australia.

Fig wasp family Agaonidae also called fig insect any of about 900 species of tiny wasps responsible for pollinating the worlds 900 species of figs see Ficus. All fig trees are pollinated by very small wasps of the family Agaonidae. A wasp finds a flowering fig by using her sense of smell.

The fertilization process goes like this. The female wasp burrows inside the fig through a narrow opening called an ostiole. Females have wings and a long head.

When she enters through the small opening her wings and antennae are torn off. These hatch into larvae that burrow out turn into wasps and fly off carrying fig pollen with them. These hatch into larvae that burrow out turn into wasps and fly off carrying fig pollen with them.

That means that for pollen from one fig plant to reach another plant fig wasps must do all the leg work. Each species of wasp pollinates only one species of fig and each fig species has its own wasp species to pollinate it. Think of the fig wasp as a tenant and the fig plant as a landlord who takes payment in the form of pollen.

The crunchy little things that you notice when eating a fig are the seeds each corresponding to one flower. Most figs that we eat are not pollinated. A young fig wasp female leaves the fig she was born in and searches for a fig in which to lay her eggs.

Such a unique flower requires a unique pollinator. If the fig is a male she lays her eggs inside. Shes shorter than an eyelash but she will fly as far as 6 miles to find a tree with flowering figs.

During their lifespans figs undergo what Hossaert-McKey and Bronstein 2001 describe in The American Journal of Botany as highly specialized pollination mutualism with agaonid wasps While many figs we now plant are self-pollinating some still rely on fig wasps for pollination. The female wasps wings and antennae break off when entering the small passage in.

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