Fig Wasp

The fig-wasp / fig mutualism (family Agaonidae of wasps; genus Ficus of plants) is one of the most spectacular and most-studied obligate mutualisms in evolutionary biology. Each of the world's ~750 fig species has its own dedicated pollinator wasp species (or in some cases a small handful of closely related wasp species), and that wasp can reproduce in no other plant. The relationship has co-evolved for at least 80 million years. The fig is botanically not a fruit but a syconium — an enclosed cluster of inverted flowers facing inward, with a tiny entry hole (ostiole) at the bottom. A mated female fig wasp finds a receptive fig (releasing the right species-specific volatile cocktail) and squeezes through the ostiole. The hole is so tight that her wings and antennae break off in the process and remain stuck at the entrance — she will never leave the fig. Inside, she lays eggs in some of the inverted flowers (causing them to develop into 'gall flowers' that nourish the wasp larvae) and pollinates other flowers (causing them to develop into seeds). She dies inside the fig. The wasp eggs hatch and develop; flightless males hatch first, mate with their sisters (who are still inside their gall flowers), then dig an exit tunnel through the fig wall — the males die without ever leaving the fig. The newly mated, winged females exit through the male-dug tunnel, pick up pollen on the way out, fly to a new fig tree of the matching species, and the cycle repeats. Yes — every commercial fig you have ever eaten contained at one point a fig wasp. The wasps are digested by the fig's enzymes (ficin) and become protein content; commercial varieties of common fig (Ficus carica) include 'parthenocarpic' cultivars that develop without pollination, but the rest do contain wasp remains.