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 Blastophaga psenes
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Fig wasps are wasps of the family Agaonidae which pollinate figs or are otherwise associated with figs. Arthropods are Animals belonging to the Phylum Arthropoda (from Greek ἄρθρον arthron, " Joint " Insects ( Class Insecta) are a major group of Arthropods and the most diverse group of Animals on the Earth with over a million described Hymenoptera is one of the larger orders of Insects comprising the sawflies, Wasps Bees and Ants The name refers to Chalcid wasps (superfamily Chalcidoidea) belong to the Insect order Hymenoptera, and are one of the largest groups within the order with some 22000 known A wasp is any Insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a Bee nor Ant. Pollination in angiosperms and Gymnosperms is the process that transfers pollen grains, which contain the male Gametes (sperm to where the female Ficus is a Genus of about 850 Species of woody Trees Shrubs Vines Epiphytes and hemi-epiphytes in the family
The family as presently defined is polyphyletic, including several unrelated lineages whose similarities are based upon their shared association with figs; efforts are underway to resolve the matter, and remove a number of constituent groups to other families, particularly the Pteromalidae and Torymidae. In Phylogenetics, a Taxon is polyphyletic ( Greek for "of many races" if the trait its members have in common evolved separately in different Pteromalidae is a very large family of Parasitic wasps with some 3450 described species in some 640 genera (the number used to be greater but many species and genera have Torymidae is a family of Wasps that consists of attractive metallic species with enlarged hind legs and generally with a long ovipositor Thus, the number of genera in the family is in flux. Probably only the Agaoninae should be regarded as belonging to the Agaonidae, whilst the Sycoecinae, Otitesellinae and Sycoryctinae should be included in the Pteromalidae. Placement of the Sycophaginae and Epichrysomallinae remains uncertain.
Among the Agaonidae, the female is a normal insect, while the males are mostly wingless. The males' only tasks are to mate with the females while still within the fig syconium and to chew a hole for the females to escape from the fig interior. An accessory fruit, false fruit, spurious fruit, epigynous fruit, syconium or pseudocarp is a Fruit where the fleshy This is the reverse of Strepsiptera and the bagworm, where the male is a normal insect and the female never leaves the host. The Strepsiptera (known in older literature as twisted-winged parasites) are an order of Insects with nine families making up about 600 species "Bagworm" redirects here The term "bagworm" is often erroneously used to refer to the Eastern tent caterpillar or Fall webworm.
Most fig inflorescences contain three kinds of flowers: male, short female, and long female. An inflorescence is a group or cluster of Flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main Branch or a complicated arrangement of branches A flower, also known as a bloom or Blossom, is the reproductive structure found in Flowering plants (plants of the division Magnoliophyta, also Female fig wasps can reach the ovaries of short female flowers with their ovipositors, but not long female flowers. Thus the short flowers grow wasps, whereas the long flowers become seeds. In figs of this sort, the crunchy bits in the fruit contain both seeds and wasps. However, there are several commercial and ornamental varieties of fig that are self-fertile and do not require pollination; these varieties are not visited by fig wasps.
Pollinating fig wasps (Agaoninae) are specific to specific figs. The common fig Ficus carica is pollinated by Blastophaga psenes.
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Life Cycle
The life cycle of the fig wasp is closely intertwined with that of the fig tree they inhabit. The wasps that inhabit a particular tree can be loosely divided into two groups; pollinating and non-pollinating. Pollination in angiosperms and Gymnosperms is the process that transfers pollen grains, which contain the male Gametes (sperm to where the female The pollinating variety forms a mutually beneficial symbiosis with the tree, whereas the non-pollinating variety is parasitic. This article is about the biological phenomenon for other uses see Symbiosis (disambiguation The term symbiosis (from the Greek Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between Organisms of different Species. Both life cycles, however, are very similar.
Though the lives of individual species differ, a general fig wasp life cycle is as follows. In the beginning of the cycle, a mature female pollinator wasp enters a receptacle ("fruit") through a small natural opening, the ostiole, passes through the mouth of the fig, which is covered in male flowers, and deposits her eggs in the cavity, which is covered in female flowers, by oviposition. Oviposition is the process of laying eggs by oviparous animals Forcing her way through the ostiole, she often loses her wings and most of her antennae. Antennae (singular antenna) are paired Appendages connected to the front-most segments of Arthropods In Crustaceans they are 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 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. In Roman mythology, the larvae or lemures (singular lemur) were the spectres or spirits of the dead they were the malignant version of the 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 for the females to escape through.
Once out of the fig, the male wasps quickly die. The females leave the figs, 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.
Genera
Genera currently included in Agaonidae according to the Universal Chalcidoidea Database:
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References
- Rasplus, J. Pegoscapus is a genus of Fig wasp native to the Americas. They range from Florida and Mexico in the north to Argentina All under heaven, or literally "heaven under" ( is a phrase in the Chinese language and a cultural concept in China. -Y. , Kerdelhuse, C. , Clainche, I. le & Mondor, G. 1998. Molecular phylogeny of fig wasps. Agaonidae are not monophyletic. Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences (III) 321(6):517-527
External links
- Video: Interaction of figs and fig wasps Multi-award-winning documentary
- Figs and fig wasps
- Images of fig wasps on Morphbank, a biological image database
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