Why do figs need wasps? Or why do wasps need figs? While the fig is generally considered a fruit, it is technically an inverted flower as well. It blooms inside the bark attached to the fig plant. Inside the fig are the eggs of wasps.
Flowers need to be pollinated to reproduce, but because the fig flower is hidden within itself, the pollinator must enter the fig to bring pollen directly to the flower. The eggs of female wasps are inside the fig flower.
This relationship between the particular fig wasp and the figs themselves is mutually beneficial – both fig and wasp need each other to reproduce successfully. This kind of relationship in biology is called reciprocity when two species positively influence each other.
HOW DOES THE HONEY BEE POLLINATE THE FIGS?
A young fig tree produces inedible male figs called kaprifig, which produce pollen. The tree also produces female figs that grow and bloom in their separate pods, where the wind or bees cannot pollinate them like other flowers.
Female wasps crawl inside both male and female figs to try to reproduce. They enter the fig through a narrow opening called the ostiole.
HORNESE NEEDS FIGS AND FIGS NEEDS HOT BEE
If the female wasp comes inside a male fig, she simultaneously lays her eggs and then dies. Their eggs hatch first with the blind, flightless male hornet. They mate with their female counterparts. Male wasps then dig a tunnel through the caprifig, and the females fly off, filled with fertilized eggs and pollen, restarting the cycle.
However, if the wasp enters a female fig, it cannot lay its eggs and dies of starvation. However, by bringing pollen to the inner flowers of the fig, it pollinates it. After that, the figs ripen quickly for humans and other animals to eat.
DOES THE FIG WE EAT WE HAVE A HONEY BEE IN IT?
So, should you be worried about the figs in your kitchen? Technically, there is at least one dead wasp per fig. However, you are by no means eating a live wasp. That wasp's exoskeleton always breaks down before we bite into the figs.
Figs produce a special enzyme called fisin, which breaks down the insect's body and converts it into protein, which is absorbed by the plant. The ringing you experience while chewing a fig is not wasp, but fig seeds.
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