I was checking my figs this afternoon and was surprised to see the guests! 
They were all over my Long Yellow Figlets.

So now it is going to be many pollinated super-Long super-Yellow figs :D   
The time was 17:02, the sunset is around 19:30
Enjoy!



     

Wow, is all I can say about that!

Igor, that's an excellent news bud;)
you will have superior harvest, and mind you, I'm not even a psychic, LOL

I just finished picture taking of my new finding ... I'll post as a new thread under- John's Market Capri...look for it later.

Igor,

Good news ! Now you sure they are around.

I feel very happy for your unmistakable witnessing!

Quite unusual in mid May ?!! what is going on with Nature ?

Is this super-Yellow a main or a breba ?

I would try hard to check and find  where those wasps are coming from and tag the tree.
This,no doubt, will be a very early Profichi, issuing insects  one month ahead of time !

Also try and see after sunrise if they manage to sneak inside the fig. Usually, they do not 'drill' through but with their powerful mandibles, lift 2 or 3 eye scales and sneak in.. if various wasps going in,  one after the other they will leave an opening easily visible.

There seems to be plenty of them... Many of your sizable figs shall be visite and if receptive, they will be polinated..

Congratulations

Francisco

Amazing pictures!  Looks like some great pollination!

OMG Igor, I am doing a pretty energetic happy dance for you!!! Now you know your caprifigs that you started will get full of wasps when ready as well.

You sir have amazing karma, I am very glad!

Francisco,

Those figs are from the main crop, I will check for the openings later today.
There are two caprifigs nearby. One is the palmofig I posted photos some time ago (it is a small tree, 200 meters away) and another is the largest fig I ever seen, maybe more than 1 meter in diameter stump at my height. It is about 500 metets away.
I discovered it recently and have not took the pictures yet. They both have the figs.

Thanks, everybody! I am excited too!

My congrats!

Now you can have all three figs: the Common, San Pedro and Smyrna types ...
... and caprifgs too ...

Igor if they make it through the fig you'll see some wings left behind at the Ostiole site... they sacrifice their wings at the gate of the paradise...

Amazing , congrats .
Igor were they caprificating the LNG yellow exclusively?

Does anyone know if there is any chance that Central Arkansas would have fig wasps? I was watching all the various bees and wasps working my raspberries, and I saw some tiny wasps on them. I have no idea, but I thought I should ask

Not that anyone knows about.  The wasps don't survive freezing.  The caprifig can insulate them for a short time.  If you wanted to establish a wasp colony in your area you'd have to protect the caprifig trees in the winter.

Ok, I checked he figs today. The wasps were still all over, I think a caprifig nearby released a great number of them since not only the Long Yellow has them but pretty much all the figs. The LY has the most of them probably because the pot is in the open and has no competition from other plants.
I can see the wings on the leaves that are leftovers from the wasps getting inside.
Here is a photo from today, I am super excited! I have 2 Smyrma figs and they should be happy here!
Time: 13:00

   

Igor,

Fantastic ! They are there..

Things to bear in mind and be ready to take action...

1- Keep a good registry of dates/hour, atmospheric details, temp/humidity, wind, cloud,..approx number of insects visiting the figs.. and many pictures.

2- Train your eye to spot wasps flying in the vicinity of receptive figs as well as crawling on leaves and fruit...When they are like you show on the picture 'mushroom queuing' to dispute entry in the fig it's easier but, on many occasions it is a business for just one or two and you need to be concentrated.
Again pictures are a must for your albums and for us in the forum.

3- Soon you shall practice enough to conclude, observing one particular fig that it still needs to be pollinated or by the contrary, that he has been visited by the insect or insects and full caprification had already occurred.

With your permission let me show these pictures where a wasp is working its way into a small but sufficiently receptive Smyrna with another insect near on stdby. on another picture there are six fully pollinated Smyrnas. First pic taken on the 20th of June at 06H45 AM ,, the other pic was dated 4th of July

I would say that the green and glossy skin of this fig tells that it is getting its first wasp visit and soon it will be caprificated.
The other four figs underneath on that same branch have already lost their glossy green color, sporting now a matte green with many white dots.
This tells you that the fig was pollinated.

To the left on another branch there are smaller younger figs still waiting for their wasps, and with their shining green skins

Good luck

Francisco

This whole cycle just fascinates me! 

Wow, that is awesome!  Thx for pics!

Thanks for the photos and explanation, Francisco!

Francisco,

Thank you for your suggestions and the photos! Very fascinating!

Today I witnessed something quite unusual.
I was observing the figs, trying to guess what was going on with the wasps. I noticed there were more of them, maybe 50% more.

All of a sudden, a large yellow wasp drops from out of nowhere and starts collecting/eating the tiny pollinating wasps!
It was like from a National Geographic movie, except I was in it! 
The whole thing lasted for about 10 sec and all the wasps were gone! Large and small…

I understand it is a circle of life and such but I realized I have never thought about who would eat the tiny wasps.
It is good they are everywhere, more is coming tomorrow for sure, I just hope the yellow ones would stay away.

Igor and Francisco, thank you both for taking me on this new knowledge.. this is incredible.

Igor,

You starting your curve of witnessing and learning that Nature fig pollination phenomon. I wouldn't be worried as you seem to have ample supply of insects. Good Profichis may have many hundreds of wasps per fig, sometimes close to one thousand.

Being practically defenseless tiny creatures they do suffer attacks from all sides...many other insects do ambush and catch them,.. if you spare some time,  keep observing the surroundings of the Caprifigs as well as Smyrnas for instance..

Certain spiders will only set their webs over the Smyrna receptive fruit or around the ripe Profichis.
They know that their prey soon will be showing up exactly there

Agile aphids ambush close by and with darting speed jump over the poor insect.
Ants of all sorts also keep hunting them and soon you will be keen in picking these buggers gently between thumb and index, and then apply the lethal rolling pressure..

On my potted figs, at the pollination season I get up before sunrise and go through the branches with Smyrnas I don't want to loose to clean the webs passing my hand and fingers between the figs and leaves, branches . The minute spiders are extremely fast to repair the webs, very difficult to see, unless you have some reflective light.

It is fun as well, and a juicy and crunchy (effectively crunchy!!) Smyrna deserves all this work, much lighter than 'shuffling'.

(if your wasps came from those two trees -200 and 500 meter away- ,a good WIND may have given you a friendly hand!
Good figging and better pollinations!
Francisco

Above Bob said that wasps cannot survive freezing and that the figs can protect them for a short period of time.  I'm curious as to how much freezing the wasp eggs can actually endure.  In my area we have a good population of wasps and we have had below freezing temperatures of over 12 hours at least a couple of times in most years and in particularly cold events (i.e, January 2007) we have been below freezing for 48 hours or more.  The was eggs obviously were able to survive those temperatures in sufficient numbers.  Last December we had a hard enough freeze to form ice about 3/4" deep on a tub of water.  I imagine such freezes in March would be more of a problem since that's when wasps would be emerging from mamme.

I searched for the range of the wasp in north america, but came up empty. Is the wasp in Arizona anywhere
in the low desert? We have about the same low temps as the California central valley (9a), but of course the
overall climate is different. It would be neat if there was a chance of attracting a wasp population with a Caprifig
tree or two. There have been figs in the Tucson valley for hundreds of years since the first Spanish missions.

I am in full agreement with what Harvey is saying.
Although my place being a fig Paradise,  we occasionally go through short periods of under 0ºC (32ºF) temps in winter mostly, as well as the typical, more or less frequent frosts not lasting too long.

Never, never consecutive days in freezing temperatures...morning rising sun soon to warm up rapidly
Snow being totally absent

Capri figs do OK in such environment.
Lived in Algeria for several years and during winter, their world known fine fig country (Kabylie) may go through much, much colder and snowy winters 600/700 meter altitude, and still they grow mostly Smyrna figs and selected local Caprifigs.
BTW - early 1900's , Eisens/Roeding,, time, California received various strains of Caprifigs from that same Kabylie, their genes may still be around

Biggest threat for these figs are the (not so rare these days) dangerous peak's of high temperatures- heat waves-  in April and/or May when fragile larvae have to take for 1,2 or 3 days in a row, temperatures as high as 37 or 38ºC  (close to 100ºF) . When this happens, fully exposed small trees will loose practically all Profichis

Bigger trees with more protection from their size and mass of shading leaves will produce a fraction of their usual crop.
Had a look on Gene's Central Arkansas climate   numbers and IMO it would not be difficult to set the wild fig in there. (he questioned that on another topic)

Francisco

I'm really happy you agree that it is possible to move the wasps to other areas. I know it took them several tries to get California populated.

ah... fig heaven..