How Large Are Fig Wasps?
WouterFig wasps are pollinator mutualists. Their symbiotic relationship with figs originated around 75 million years ago. They belong to a superfamily of wasps known as the Chalcidoidea. This superfamily includes other insect wasps, such as the diamondback moth and the fire ant.
They spend almost all of their lives within a single fruit. Female wasps lay eggs on figs. Figs have a small opening called the ostiole that allows pollinating wasps to get into florets. This allows the pollinating wasp to fertilize fig ovaries. The fig tree drops the fruit if the pollinator was successful.
The pollinating wasp’s job is almost perfect. She is small enough to be able to enter the fig without damaging it. She lays her eggs inside the fig chamber and dies after they are laid.
However, the female wasp has to leave the fig to lay eggs on another fig. During her flight, she will pass by many male flowers and collect pollen. She brings the pollen back to her new fig. She lays eggs and dies without producing any offspring.
Female wasps have depigmented antennae and narrow heads. They collect pollen in a special pouch that is adapted to hold the pollen. The pouch is shaped like a funnel. They exit through holes in the exterior of the fig, cut by the male brothers.
The female wasp is a couple millimeters long. The genome of a fig wasp is very similar to the genome of a parasitoid jewel wasp, Nasonia vitripennis. However, the fig genome is much smaller than that of a jewel wasp. It has fewer Ors than honeybees and fire ants. The genome also has fewer genes for environmental sensing.
