Fig wasp
Fig wasps are wasps of the superfamily Chalcidoidea which spend their larval stage inside figs. Most pollinate the figs, but others simply feed on the plant.
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| Blastophaga psenes female | |
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The non-pollinators belong to several groups in the superfamily Chalcidoidea. So, the fig wasps are a polyphyletic group: they include several unrelated lineages whose similarities are based upon their shared association with figs.
The pollinators are all in the family Agaonidae. They make galls. The other types either make their own galls or use the galls of other fig wasps.[1][2]
Fig Wasp Media
Female (left, with long ovipositor) and male Blastophaga psenes
Pleistodontes sp. female
Ceratosolen species are pollinators of the Sycomorus, Sycocarpus and Neomorphe sections of Ficus.
Non-pollinating parasitoid wasps Apocrypta ovipositing on Ficus sur in South Africa
References
- ↑ Boucek Z. 1988. Australasian Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera): a biosystematic revision of genera of fourteen families, with a reclassification of species. C.A.B. International, Wallingford, England. 832 pp.
- ↑ Cruaud, Astrid and others 2011. Phylogeny and evolution of life-history strategies in the Sycophaginae non-pollinating fig wasps (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea). BMC Evolutionary Biology. 11: 178. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-11-178. PMC 3145598. PMID 21696591.