Interference competition and high temperatures reduce the virulence of fig wasps and stabilize a fig-wasp mutualism.

PloS One
Rui-Wu WangDouglas W Yu

Abstract

Fig trees are pollinated by fig wasps, which also oviposit in female flowers. The wasp larvae gall and eat developing seeds. Although fig trees benefit from allowing wasps to oviposit, because the wasp offspring disperse pollen, figs must prevent wasps from ovipositing in all flowers, or seed production would cease, and the mutualism would go extinct. In Ficus racemosa, we find that syconia ('figs') that have few foundresses (ovipositing wasps) are underexploited in the summer (few seeds, few galls, many empty ovules) and are overexploited in the winter (few seeds, many galls, few empty ovules). Conversely, syconia with many foundresses produce intermediate numbers of galls and seeds, regardless of season. We use experiments to explain these patterns, and thus, to explain how this mutualism is maintained. In the hot summer, wasps suffer short lifespans and therefore fail to oviposit in many flowers. In contrast, cooler temperatures in the winter permit longer wasp lifespans, which in turn allows most flowers to be exploited by the wasps. However, even in winter, only in syconia that happen to have few foundresses are most flowers turned into galls. In syconia with higher numbers of foundresses, interference competition reduces ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Aug 12, 2014·PloS One·Jun-Zhou HeYao-Tang Li
Apr 13, 2015·Science China. Life Sciences·RuiWu WangStephen G Compton
Jul 9, 2014·Ecology·Rui-Wu WangBao Fa Sun
Feb 21, 2014·The Quarterly Review of Biology·Megan E Frederickson
Jan 8, 2016·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Brian S Steidinger, James D Bever
Jul 3, 2010·Science China. Life Sciences·RuiWu Wang, Lei Shi
May 16, 2014·Science China. Life Sciences·RuiWu WangNatasha L Wiggins
Aug 22, 2015·Scientific Reports·Rui-Wu WangDerek W Dunn
Feb 5, 2015·Scientific Reports·Lei GaoRui-Wu Wang
May 16, 2012·Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences·Emily I JonesRégis Ferrière
Sep 8, 2010·Science China. Life Sciences·RuiWu WangYaoTang Li

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Software Mentioned

Syconial
R package survival
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nlme
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