Quote:
Originally Posted by HarveyC
The wasps die and become compost during by winter. But prior to then the female have laid eggs in the mamme crop of figs. Then wasps emerge from the mamme in March or April and lay eggs in the profichi crop which are the generation most people are interested in as they do the pollinating.
Prof. Joe cannot not resist (Source: Wikipedia) :
The life cycle of the fig wasp is closely intertwined with that of the fig tree it inhabits. The wasps that inhabit a particular tree can be divided into two groups; pollinating and nonpollinating. The pollinating wasps are part of an obligate nursery pollination mutualism with the fig tree. Both life cycles of the two groups, however, are very similar.
Though the lives of individual species differ, a pollinating fig wasp life cycle is as follows. In the beginning of the cycle, a mature female pollinator wasp enters the immature "fruit" (actually a stem-like structure known as a syconium) through a small natural opening, the ostiole and deposits her eggs in the cavity. Forcing her way through the ostiole, she often loses her wings and most of herantennae. To facilitate her passage through the ostiole, the underside of the female's head is covered with short spines that provide purchase on the walls of the ostiole. In depositing her eggs, the female also deposits pollen she picked up from her original host fig. This pollinates some of the female flowers on the inside surface of the fig and allows them to mature. After the female wasp lays her eggs and follows through with pollination, she dies. After pollination, there are several species of non-pollinating wasps which deposit their eggs before the figs harden. These wasps act as parasites to either the fig or the pollinating wasps. As the fig develops, the wasp eggs hatch and develop into larvae. After going through the pupal stage, the mature male’s first act is to mate with a female. The males of many species lack wings and are unable to survive outside the fig for a sustained period of time. After mating, a male wasp begins to dig out of the fig, creating a tunnel through which the females escape.
Once out of the fig, the male wasps quickly die. The females find their way out, picking up pollen as they do. They then fly to another tree of the same species, where they deposit their eggs and allow the cycle to begin again.
Coevolution[edit]
The fig-wasp mutualism originated between 70 and 90 million years ago as the product of a unique evolutionary event.[3][4][5] Since then, cocladogenesis and coadaptation on a coarse scale between wasp genera and fig sections has been supported by both morphological and molecular studies.[5][6] This illustrates the tendency towards coradiation of figs and wasps.[5] Such strict cospeciation should result in identical phylogenetic trees for the two lineages [4] and recent work mapping fig sections onto molecular phylogenies of wasp genera and performing statistical comparisons has provided strong evidence for cospeciation at that scale.[4]
Groups of genetically well-defined pollinator wasp species coevolve in association with groups of genetically poorly defined figs.[7] The constant hybridization of the figs promotes the constant evolution of new pollinator wasp species. Host switching and pollinator host sharing may contribute
Personally, I like the coevolution part. The constant hybridization of our fig cultivars promotes new wasp species. Nature is such an amazing thing!! Joe