#fig wasp

[drinksss]

Ok I’m just going to say it’s done. Something about non-pollinating fig wasps

[waspdaily]

Today's wasp of the day is the common fig wasp (Blastophaga psenes)!

Credits: photo 1, photo 2

Male fig wasps are dinky shrimp mermen who exist solely for providing the female with genetic material and an exit tunnel. When the female wasps within the fig reach adulthood, she heads out the tunnel the male gnawed open for her and squeezes her way out of the fig, getting coated in pollen. When fig fruits are ready to receive pollination, they emit compounds for the wasp to follow so that she knows where to go. Entering a fig is a one way path and it is common for the wasps to lose their wings and antennae. Once in the fig, she will use her tiny ovipositor to create galls for her babies to develop within. Then she gets dissolved into fig juice.

[niqvassieart]

Gouache painting of a female (above) and male (below) fig waspCeratosolen fusciceps sitting on top of a galled flower within a Ficus racemosa fig.

[blessedscavengers]

fig wasp in a fig

made in 2025

[80splumpkin]

Ever think about fig wasps, youg should be thinking about fig wasps I think

[pomegranateteeth]

Illustration from "Fabre's Book of Insects" by E. J. Detmold, 1926

[complimentaryculler]

Should figs count as an animal product

Yes there's dissolved wasps in there

No it's a plant

Voting ended onMar 7

[creatureimages]

lao papaya salads sometimes have unripe figs in them. it adds a nice crunch to the salad and mellows out the fermented papaya

it also gives you an opportunity to meet new chalcidoid wasps with ridiculous ovipositor:body ratios