Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Wang, R.W
• Zheng, Q

Titel

Structure of a fig wasp community: Temporal segregation of oviposition and larval diets

Ist Teil von

• Symbiosis (Philadelphia, PA), 2008, Vol.45 (1-3), p.113-116

Ort / Verlag

Philadelphia, PA: Balaban

Erscheinungsjahr

2008

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Observations were made on six fig wasp species on Ficus racemosa growing in the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanic Garden, Yunnan Province, China. The oviposition sequence was determined for Apocryptophagus testacea, Apocrypta sp2, Apocryptophagus mayri, Ceratosolen fusciceps and Apocrypta westwood. An experiment was carried out in which each species of non-pollinating wasp was separately introduced into bagged figs which prevented other species from ovipositing. This showed that the non-pollinators Apocryptophagus testacea and A. mayri are foragers (gall makers) of the female flowers, and that the other species were parasitoids or inquilines. Additional evidence from naturally unpollinated inflorescences suggested that A. agraensis is most likely a parasitoid of the pollinator, Ceratosolen fusciceps, and that Apocrypta westwood and Apocrypta sp. are the parasitoids of Apocryptophagus mayri and A. testacea, respectively. These results indicate that the fig wasps inhabiting F. racemosa figs either utilize different developmental stages of the same resources (female flowers) or utilize different food resources.