Figs and fig wasps

What are figs and fig wasps? Figs are plants in the genus Ficus, which have a unique closed inflorescence called a syconium, typically containing hundreds of flowers. We eat the ripe syconia of one species, F. carica, and call these ‘pseudofruits’ figs too. There are about 750 fig species worldwide, mostly in the tropics, where dramatic ‘strangler’ figs are found. These start life as epiphytes on other trees and then drop aerial roots that slowly smother and kill their host. Figs have an obligate mutualism with tiny fig-pollinating wasps (family Agaonidae). Female wasps enter receptive syconia, where they pollinate female flowers. They also lay eggs into some flowers, where their larvae induce galls. Some weeks later, the wasp offspring emerge from their galls into the syconium, just as the male flowers have matured their pollen sacs. The new generation of female wasps leave the scyonium through holes made by the males and carry pollen to receptive syconia elsewhere. This symbiosis is exploited by many species of fig-parasitic wasps. Most of them do not enter the syconium or contribute to pollination, but use long ovipositors to inject eggs through the fig wall so that their larvae can feed on either fig flowers or other wasps.