I found these guys in Campbell, California in a tree that I've been watching for about a year now.  So what do you think... are these THE wasp or just another bug???

 

 
 

 

What do they taste like?

Taste like chicken   :-D

Did they carry pollen :P ?
Try to taste again they should have a figy taste. You should let them fly and melt under your tongue .
Was that fig taken on a caprifigtree ?
Photos of the tree ?

Yes, I think that they are the fig-wasp, lucky you.

Below pics are the very first time (& last) that I've actually
seen them 'good-buggers'. It was in a Med. Sea region!

JR, Yes that's the fig wasp.

Did you find them outside the fig or did you cut one open to check ??

For some reason they seem to be ahead of time ( approx 1 week/10 days)
Suggest you take pictures of the groups of figs on the tree.

There will be bigger fruit, getting softer, ripen,  figs from where the wasps come from (Mamme) and in the vicinity, same branch and/or side branches, still on the last years wood, smaller figs with a lighter glossy green color, (the Profichi)  many of them, probably already receptive and inviting the wasps inn..
With a bit of luck, in the morning, weather allowing between 8 - 10/11 in the morning, you shall be able to film the wasps getting their way into the Profichi figs

NO POLLEN !!!
for that you shall have to wait precisely 3 more months at about mid June when these small Profichi get much bigger, be ripe and supplying millions of wasps full of eggs and POLLEN !

Francisco

Interesting, I think Campbell should be a little later than my location and I'm later than Madera/Fresno, more like late June, I believe, is when my Profichi had wasps emerging.  But my mamme aren't that far along this year.

JR, the USDA researcher (forget his name) wrote in the 1901 Yearbook of Agriculture about caprifigs in Niles which were later than the ones in Fresno at the time and that the fruits could be useful for acquiring by Fresno growers for later crops.  Niles is now part of Fremont which is not that far away from you.  If you have the time, that may be a good area to hunt down for more caprifigs.

JR, is that photo from last year or is it current?

Harvey I shall not expect my wasps to come out before the 20/22nd... Temps here have been 3 to 4ºC
average bellow those of Campbell.. Saturday, there will be close to 30ºC and, believe me this will make wasps to come out earlier. It looks like the cool breezes from the Ocean are not yet getting there.

The fellow you mentioned was Gustav Eisen... he said on his papers that around the Bay area on those remote times that wasps will come out about one month later than in the San Joaquin Valley.. referring to the June wasps... Here we talk of the March move from the Mamme to the young Profichi..
Whatever happens, in between wasp exit dates there will always be a span of 3 months exactly.
Francisco

Francisco, my stone fruit trees flower earlier here than in Campbell, yet my mamme aren't that large yet and the wasps aren't emerging yet.  I do have small profichi developing but they are still quite small.  We had a lot of cold nights with warm days earlier in the winter but lately it has felt like spring.  I went for a walk very late last night in just shorts and a t-shirt....okay, it was somewhat cold but I was cooling off after my exercises.

Hi guys,

Thanks for the responses!  I took the picture yesterday and these were wasps that were still inside of the fig; I actually cut the fig open and found them inside.  I will definitely try to keep an eye on the tree in the coming weeks to hopefully catch some fig wasp activity.  In the meantime, I think I need to learn a bit more about figs, wasps, and caprification  :) 

JR, here is quite a bit of info: http://waynesword.palomar.edu/arbimg10.htm

Do you happen to have any Bing cherries near you?  Ours have just started flowering (I noticed them first maybe 3-4 days ago).  I would just like to use that as a comparison of our seasons.

JR,

A closer look to your pictures, apparently reveals that you have cut the fig or figs straight through the eye, which looks to be already open when you cut the fruit.. Was it ?

One may also see, again if I am not wrong, that the famous inner tunnel to the eye,  had already been 'excavated' by the males to open the way for the ladies to move out of the fig. In fact it looks so

If this is correct with a fig you certainly picked at random, by now, dozens or even hundreds of Mamme figs may be liberating thousands of wasps to move into the available Profichis on that same tree or on others nearby  to lay their eggs and to establish there the new colonies of wasps.

When we found fully developed wasps moving inside a Caprifig, this means that they have already been inseminated, their load of eggs are fertile and their immediate objective is to move out and find the next generation of Caprifigs  (profichi) to lay their eggs and repeat the cycle.

Francisco

i wanted to be a vespista.. well.. i have vespa in the garage but it's all taken apart for restoration i have been waiting for last... 15 yrs. but soon.. hopefully... i'll have vespa del fico :) i bet fig wasp will fly long before my vespa 180 ss will. 

Pete,

I do hope so!

Once had a 150 and did overhauls on a couple of times.. very simple machines      

Still around with high prices on the collectors market

Hope you have a mild turn into spring,  and plenty of sun to help your new figs root and be strong trees

Francisco

Vespa?!? It used to remind me of an ugly [twin] pregnant goat.

How about the Lambretta (150/175/200 cc 2-cycle engine) ?
My first 2 powered wheels I bought was the 200 cc one;
OMG how I loved driving it around while still a reckless teenager.
It was no fig wasp...

gorgi, there are those who enjoy lambretta. but there are more of us who love the simple unibody efficiency of the one and only vespa :)

Here is a great story about the whole cycle.

Thank you Cooper
This is a fantastic film, extremely well documented

Francisco

Harvey, 

I'm unaware of any bing cherries in my immediate neighborhood, or the neighborhood in which I found the fig with the wasps.  I live in a micro-climate (in an area of many different micro-climates) in the Santa Cruz Mountains some 15 miles away from Campbell and plant/tree activity can vary significantly.  For example, on my side of the ridge I get about 40" annual rainfall, whereas just down the road 1/2 mile they will only measure 30" a year.  Yet up the mountain about a mile, they measure 60".  Campbell get about 14" or so annually.  It's crazy but interesting. 
Also, I don't know if you have any apricot trees, but mine are in full bloom.


Francisco,

I'm not sure if the eye was open or closed when I cut through the fig.  I went back yesterday to take a look at the tree and saw that most eyes were closed, but some were open.  I also went to take a look at a tree I knew of closer to the Niles area Harvey mentioned in Fremont (off Durham Road) and saw a lot more fig wasps in the figs, along with the fact that most eyes were closed but some were open.  Admittedly, I didn't pick a lot of fruit so as not to disturb the wasp activity (I want to keep as many of these guys around as possible!). 

Here's some photos I took of the tree + fruit from the one in Campbell:

 

 

 


And these are from the one in Fremont on Durham Road:

 

 

 

 


And thanks for the website links from Harvey and Cooper... I'll get to those as soon as I can!

Question:
Is a dark/black caprifig considered rare?

JR,

Both trees look good and apparently a good deal of Profichi have already been caprificated, given their actual size..this the reason for some Mamme being open eyes and wasps already escaped.
Good to keep records of your findings for future reference .. code the trees register location timings. etc
Assuming some Profichis were caprificated a week or so ago, this mean that on that particular tree there will be a strong probability that those first Profochis to be available for pollination early June.

This is important in case you need to have potted figs pollinated, be they Smyrna or Common.. These figs become receptive for wasps a week or two earlier than the grounded ones.
Being apparently so easy to spot these trees I would assume that in those areas there must be plenty of them.... and may be some edible seedlings

On Gorgi question - black caprifigs -
I would say (in my area) not rare but not very common. I have already shown in the forum some rather dark violet, but there are some shiny black, others very dark green but the best of the best for me are the Parchl (see pic)
These Profochi figs are big and may load approx 700 to 800 wasps or even more.
Warps by the time they are ready come out of the fig  slowly one by one ..no rush and there are no excesses

Francisco

JR, as I suspected, the season here (for most things, anyways) is earlier.  My apricots only have flower remnants remaining at this time but, surprisingly, your caprifigs are way ahead of mine.  I would like to buy/trade some cuttings with you, please, as I'd like to evaluate this caprifig here.  Wish I had the time, I'd love to drive over and take a look in person!

Francisco,  Thanks for the info.  I've started a file on most of my fig finds but am not the best record keeper.  I have definitely paid closer attention to recording details on this one, though.  I started cuttings last year from both of these trees and just recently transplanted them outside into the ground.  They're doing well (fingers crossed)!

Harvey,  I'll be PM'ing you shortly!

Thanks guys -
JR

I thought I'd post these figs I re-discovered this morning in downtown Los Gatos, California, just about 6 miles from my house (as the crow flies).  Just in case anyone is keeping track in the years to come concerning the extent (or how far south) the fig wasp can be found in the San Francisco Bay Area.