Blastophaga
| Blastophaga | |
|---|---|
| |
| Blastophaga psenes | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Agaonidae |
| Subfamily: | Agaoninae |
| Genus: | Blastophaga Gravenhorst, 1829 |
| Type species | |
| Blastophaga psenes (Linnaeus, 1758)
| |
| Species | |
Blastophaga is a wasp genus in the family Agaonidae (fig wasps) which pollinate figs or are otherwise associated with figs, a coevolutional relationship that has been developing for at least 80 million years.[1] Pollinating fig wasps are specific to specific figs. The common fig Ficus carica is pollinated by Blastophaga psenes.
The common figs contain no gall flowers for the reception of wasp eggs, and the Blastophaga female moves from flower to flower, incidentally fertilizing them, but is prevented from depositing her eggs. Worn out, the wasp perishes. Any eggs she may have dropped also perish.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ Hymenoptera of America North of Mexico: Synoptic Catalog, Second Supplement. U.S. Department of Agriculture. 1967. p. 248.
- ^ Lounsbury, Charles P. (1908). The Smyrna Fig and Its Pollinating Insect ...
- Proctor, M., Yeo, P. & Lack, A. (1996). The Natural History of Pollination. Timber Press, Portland, OR. ISBN 0-88192-352-4
External links
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