What is the symbiotic relationship between a wasp and a fig tree?
mutualistic relationship
One of the interactions studied by Borges and her team is the 80-million-year relationship between the fig tree and the fig wasp. The tree and the wasp share a mutualistic relationship, with the wasps pollinating fig trees’ flowers and the trees, in return, providing wasps with mating and hatching grounds.
How did fig wasps evolve?
The fig–wasp mutualism originated between 70 and 90 million years ago as the product of a unique evolutionary event. Since then, cocladogenesis and coadaptation on a coarse scale between wasp genera and fig sections have been demonstrated by both morphological and molecular studies.
What type of symbiotic relationship exists between the sycamore fig and the fig wasp?
Mutualism – both species better off/both species gain something. Example: Sycamore Fig Tree (+) and Fig Wasp (+). The Sycamore Fig Tree provides a nursery for Fig Wasps which nourishes and protects the developing wasps. In return, the wasps pollinate the flowers inside the figs with pollen from a different tree.
What is the relationship between Smyrna figs and wasps?
Mediterranean farmers long ago discovered that Smyrna fig trees could be made fruitful by hanging among their branches fruits of inedible, so-called wild goat figs, or caprifigs. The caprifigs supply the needed pollen, which is carried into the developing Smyrna fruits by that tiny wasp.
Which type of symbiotic relationship best describes the relationship between wasps and caterpillars?
The symbiosis observed in this example is called parasitism. The wasp larva will benefit from the relationship with the worm, as larva are supplied…
How does figs help wasps mutualism?
Fig & Fig Wasp Mutualism When the female flowers inside the immature fruit are ready for pollination the fig emits an enticing aroma that attracts only female wasps of the specific type for that tree. The wasp finds the fig by its scent and struggles to get inside through the small opening at the end of the fig.
When did fig trees evolve?
Wild fig trees first grew in Africa and West Asia and South Asia and around the Mediterranean Sea beginning probably about a hundred million years ago, in the time of the dinosaurs.
How do figs develop?
Fig trees don’t flower like apples and peaches. Their flowers bloom inside the pear-shaped pod, which later matures into the fruit we eat. Each flower then produces a single, one-seeded, hard-shelled fruit called achene ― that’s what gives the fig the crunch we know ― and the fig is made up of multiple achene.
How figs are made wasps?
If the fig is a male, she lays her eggs inside. These hatch into larvae that burrow out, turn into wasps and fly off, carrying fig pollen with them. If the wasp climbs into a female fig, she pollinates it, but cannot lay her eggs and just dies alone.
How are figs pollinated wasps?
What type of ecological relationship is occurring between the wasp and the caterpillar?
Parasitism- the animal is harmed (loses blood and gets a disease) and the flea benefits (gets food and a home). The G. wasp injects its eggs into a caterpillar. The larvae of the wasp feed on the fluids of the caterpillar, then eat though its skin.
What kind of relationship exists between the wasp and the caterpillar?
Obligate symbioses occur when organisms require symbiotic relationships to survive. Some parasitic wasps of caterpillars possess obligate mutualistic viruses called “polydnaviruses.” Along with eggs, wasps inject polydnavirus inside their caterpillar hosts where the hatching larvae develop inside the caterpillar.
Why do figs need wasps?
The crunchy little things that you notice when eating a fig are the seeds, each corresponding to one flower. Such a unique flower requires a unique pollinator. All fig trees are pollinated by very small wasps of the family Agaonidae. Fig trees are tropical plants with numerous species around the world.
How do fig wasps pollinate fig trees?
Figs offer a snug nursery where fig wasps can lay eggs and raise young. In turn, wasps distribute fig pollen, enabling the plant to make seeds and reproduce. Theirs is a unique relationship, one of the best examples of mutualism in nature, where both of its members and the wider ecosystem benefit.
How are wasps and figs related?
Figs and fig wasps have a special relationship that is essential to their mutual survival. The fig provides a home for the wasp and the wasp provides the pollen that the fruit needs to ripen. The insect’s life cycle begins when a tiny female wasp enters a fig and begins laying eggs inside it.
How do figs grow wasps?
How do figs pollinate without wasps?
Some types of fig that are grown for human consumption have figs that ripen without pollination. It is also possible to trick plants into ripening figs without wasps by spraying them with plant hormones.
What is the symbiotic relationship between a orchard spider and wasp?
The H.a. wasp lays its eggs in the spider. After the spider builds its web, the larvae of the wasp eat the spider from the inside out and use the web for their cocoon. Parasitism- because the spider is hurt (death) and the wasp benefits (food and cocoon).
What is a fig wasp?
A fig wasp’s life begins and ends in… you guessed it, a fig. A young fig wasp female leaves the fig she was born in and searches for a fig in which to lay her eggs. She’s shorter than an eyelash, but she will fly as far as 6 miles to find a tree with flowering figs. A wasp finds a flowering fig by using her sense of smell.
How far do wasps fly to find figs?
A young fig wasp female leaves the fig she was born in and searches for a fig in which to lay her eggs. She’s shorter than an eyelash, but she will fly as far as 6 miles to find a tree with flowering figs.
How do wasps pollinate a fig tree?
Like most plants that reproduce using fruit, the fig tree’s fruit ripen only after its flowers are pollinated with a grain of pollen from another tree. But with the flowers hidden inside the figs, how does the pollen ever get to the flower? It turns out that the wasps bring the pollen that triggers the growth of fig fruits.
Can you have a WASP without a fig tree?
Figs and wasps depend on each other to reproduce, so you can’t have one without the other. Just as the fig wasp depends on the fig tree to complete its life cycle, the fig tree is counting on the wasp.