Fig Wasps Case Study

The mutualistic relationship between fig trees and fig wasps plays an important role for the reproductive fitness of each species. Normally, fig wasps pollenate the fig tree’s compound flowers (syconiums) at the expense of the tree providing a suitable environment for the fig wasps to reproduce in the syconium’s flowers. However, with almost every mutualism there are ‘cheaters’ that will try to take advantage of the benefits without bringing anything to the table. In this case, pollen-free fig wasps will lay their eggs in the fig tree’s flowers effectively rendering the syconium useless in terms of reproduction for the tree: turning a mutual relationship into a parasitic one. To combat these ‘cheaters,’ host plants can sanction the affected part of the plant in order to minimize the resources lost. The results from the experiment performed by Jandér and her associates indicate that figs containing only pollen-free wasps are aborted, but figs containing both pollen-free wasps and …show more content…
With individualized sanctions, F. nymphaeifolia would be able to sanction specific flowers inside the syconium instead of the entire fig itself. If there were a mechanism involving a way to distinguish eggs from non-pollinators and pollinators, F. nymphaeifolia would be able to cut off the nutrient supply to the flowers containing the pollen-free wasp’s eggs. This would dramatically dwindle the population of pollen-free wasps whether the problem is genetic or not. If it’s heritable these wasps will not be able to pass on their genes. And if it were a decision of the wasps from the start, individualized sanctions would remove all possible benefits from not carrying the pollen. One draw back of individualized sanctions is that it may require more resources from the fig tree to successfully detect and abort specific flowers within a syconium that contains