this fig It is one of the most appetizing fruits of the season we left behind, and with the arrival of autumn, there is no other choice but to make jam with them. Yet what many ignore is that figs contain a surprising secret: each of these fruits is found on the corpse of a wasp.
You don’t need to panic, because the insect in question (which we unknowingly eat in every fig we eat) already completely shredded and even part of the fruit. This, in particular, is the so-called fig wasp. But how did it get there?
These insects are the main responsible for pollinating fig trees so the trees can continue to thrive and bear delicious fruit year after year. Therefore, without these wasps, the existence of fig trees would not be possible.
Aristotle has already told history of animalsHe said wild fig fruits contain wasps that form as larvae, breaking the “skin” of the pupa and flying like midges. He believed that they were spontaneously produced by the generation.
So they get in
Not exactly like that. Unlike other trees that have an open flower that insects can easily access, The flowers of fig trees are found in the fruits we see, closed and difficult to pollinate.
Of course, this makes it very difficult for insects to pass from flower to flower. But the same does not happen with the fig wasp, the only insect that can enter the flower and transfer pollen from the male to the female tree.
In this way, they lay their eggs on male flowers (often with inedible rim fruits) and go to female figs when the larvae have grown and come out, covered with pollen, ready to pollinate. .
In this way, the wasps manage to move the pollen from one flower to another, but at a very high price because the operation costs their lives. When wasps enter the female fig, they do so through a very narrow channel and can no longer get out.
As a result, the insect dies inside, and its remains become fertilizer, which will help the fruit to develop. When we eat figs in this way, we also eat the remains of the wasp. We will never detect even the slightest trace of it.because it is already fully integrated into the fruit.
Fig wasps are actually a group of species. they are often unrelated to each other, but have morphological similarities stemming from their life cycles in figs. In fact, scientists are still clarifying their classification, and there are several bumblebee families grouped under this definition.
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