Ficus species, Wasp Species, Nematode Species
Amazing thing about figs—they are pollinated by tiny wasps inside the hollow fig entering and leaving by the little hole at the end opposite the stem. Figs and their pollinator wasps (and their parasitic wasps) are covered abundantly on the Internet, so let’s gloss over wasps today and go a step beyond. Maybe you are ok with wasps inside figs, but how about squiggly wiggly eel worms (nematodes?). Thank you Dee Staley for today’s figgy pudding.
Figs are built like no other fruit. A fig is a swollen hollow stem with hundreds of flowers lining the inner cavity. That hollow space is the wasps’ boudoir, where their social lives produce wasp babies inside the fig. Each “seed” in the fig (stem) is actually a seed-sized fruit, think of an itsy bitsy nutlet.
Some of the research on nematodes in figs occurred on native Strangler Figs and Bearded Figs in Florida. There are variations and exceptions with respect to fig species, wasp species, and nematode species, but generally speaking the female wasp enters the fig to lay eggs inside the fig flowers lining the chamber. The female wasp arrives with nematode worm passengers. After laying eggs, the female dies, and –ugh–the tagalong nematodes come forth into the fig from the wasp cadaver. The newly arrived nematodes take up residence inside the fig, and just like the wasp, spawn within. Then as the new generation of hatching female wasps begins departing to go pollinate another fig, the baby nematodes hop aboard and treat the wasps as their little Uber drivers.
Anybody want a fig newton?
John Bradford
George Rogers
George Rogers
Dee Staley
Treasure Coast Natives 
Linda Grashoff
May 13, 2022 at 6:34 pm
That’s fascinating!
George Rogers
May 13, 2022 at 6:46 pm
Hi Linda…well if anybody might like nematodes, it could be you. Thanks to you, I STILL have a multi-year Winogradsky column on my back porch…nice and colorful, and it changes. Hope all’s great!
Linda Grashoff
May 23, 2022 at 11:34 am
Thanks for crediting me with your Winogradsky column, George. I still don’t have one myself. Someday . . .
Flower Roberts
May 13, 2022 at 9:12 pm
The nematode is news to me. Thanks George.
George Rogers
May 13, 2022 at 9:13 pm
Yup…figs are little ecosystems unto themselves.
theshrubqueen
May 14, 2022 at 1:44 pm
Is this where the root knot nematodes come from?
George Rogers
May 15, 2022 at 1:58 pm
those are different, and figs have them as well
theshrubqueen
May 15, 2022 at 2:37 pm
OK, thanks. I was surprised to find there are good and bad nematodes. Thought they were all bad.
George Rogers
May 15, 2022 at 8:49 pm
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/beneficial/nematodes-as-pest-control.htm