If you enjoy figs, you might have come across some concerning tales about them. All figs are said to harbor wasps, as these bugs are integral for the fruit’s development. But do the figs we consume actually contain a wasp, or is that merely a myth?
The truth is a bit complex. While fig wasps play a crucial role in the life cycle of various fig tree species, the majority of figs found in supermarkets are likely free of any insects.
“The fig tree and fig wasp exemplify mutualism well,” Charlotte Jandair, a researcher in plant ecology and evolution at Uppsala University in Sweden, stated in an email to Live Science. “Other examples of mutualism include trees and mycorrhizal fungi that assist trees in nutrient uptake, as well as flowering plants and their pollinators.”
In the fig and fig wasp dynamic, the fruit becomes pollinated while the wasps reproduce, establishing a mutual relationship. However, this connection is quite intricate.
The “fruit” we associate with figs is, in fact, a hollow structure known as syconium, which is packed with tiny flowers. When female fig wasps enter the syconium from female fig trees, they carry pollen to produce and mature seeds. The entry point for the wasps is very tiny, which may cause them to lose their wings and antennae—and potentially die inside a fig.
Thus, there is a possibility that certain types of figs may contain deceased fig wasps.
However, this does not imply that the figs we consume necessarily have wasps inside them. Not all fig types require pollination to ripen. For instance, humans often eat fig varieties such as Ficus carica, which includes several cultivars that are parthenocarpic. This means that ripe fruits can form without the need for pollination.
“In the U.S., most figs we consume do not contain wasps,” Carlos Machado, a biology professor at the University of Maryland, noted in an email to Live Science.
Common varieties such as mission figs and brown turkey figs do not require wasp pollination to mature, Jandair explained. However, this is not applicable to all figs consumed by humans. For example, smur-nails, kalimill-nails, and wild figs around the Mediterranean depend on wasps for pollination.
“Most wild figs rely on pollination to produce ripe fruit,” Machado clarified. Thus, these figs might contain small wasps, but that remains uncertain.
Related: How do seedless fruits reproduce?
Just because a wasp may once have landed on a fig doesn’t mean it’s still present by the time the fig is consumed. The syconium of Ficus carica features an opening large enough for the structure to exit after the wasp has entered. When a wasp dies inside, its body is typically crushed and decomposed during the maturation of the fig, according to Jandair.
“If any remains of the original pollinators were present, they would likely be unnoticeable,” Jandair noted. The crunchy texture is more likely derived from plant seeds rather than the remnants of the wasp.
The lifecycle of fig wasps
While bees can perish within figs, these fruits play a vital role in their propagation cycle. Most fig species require wasp pollination to generate new fruit, and fig wasps cannot reproduce without assistance from fig trees.
When a female wasp enters the syconium of edible figs, her primary role is to pollinate them. Conversely, if she accesses the syconium of a male tree, known as a caprifig that humans do not typically consume, she will proceed to lay her eggs.
In this environment, eggs develop into larvae, ultimately hatching as young wasps. Generally, male wasps perish within the caprifig post-mating, but they assist in creating tunnels that enable female wasps to escape. Eventually, the fertilized female wasp emerges in search of new figs to lay eggs in, carrying pollen from the caprifig.
There exist around 850 species of fig trees, each of which can only be pollinated by a specific species of fig, as Jandair indicated. This mutual relationship between these plants and their insect partners has evolved over millions of years, and both Machado and Jandair emphasized its ecological significance. As keystone species, fig trees and wasps are critical to the survival of many other plants and animals in the ecosystem and constitute an area of great research interest.
“There is a mutual dependency among other plant pollinators, but the fig-fig wasp relationship is likely the most intricate and significant,” Machado remarked.
Source: www.livescience.com