Fig wasp

Maggie on Instagram: "Fig wasps 😊 Thank you Sam!"

By Athayde Tonhasca When people talk about keystone and indicator species, often what they mean is ‘my favourite species’, or ‘the important species I work with’. But one gr…

Tall oaks from little acorns grow, but until recently no spreading Moreton Bay fig trees sprouted from the seedy fruit that local trees produce. Now, thanks to a tiny wasp—the tree's indispensable pollinator—the situation has changed.

FIG. 3. Relationship between the fig wasp (ElisabethieUa stuckengergi), the fig nematode Schistonchus africanus n. sp., and their host fig tree (Ficus thonningii). Illustrations are schematically represented and not in scale. A) Male and female of fig wasp (female redrawn from Boucek et al. [1981]; male redrawn from Berg and Wiebes [1992]). Nematodes are transported from one fig crop to another by the vector wasp. B) General appearance of Ficus thonningiiwith leaves and figs. C) Penetration…

You’ll never see a fig’s flowers until you open one up. Unlike a blossoming plum, apple, or pear tree, figs hold their many microscopic white blooms

The only truly terrifying concept in the natural world. I mean, you could bite into this.

Ben Crair considers the evolutionary and biological wonders of the fig, and how it affects human and animal life across the world.

I was a wasp before. I can remember hatching inside a fig. I was a bulbous, gelatinous thing. There were others, and we grew together and hardened and became long and spindly. After a while the oth…