''Blastophaga'' is a wasp genus in the family

Agaonidae The family Agaonidae is a group of pollinating and nonpollinating fig wasps. They spend their larval stage inside the fruits of figs. The pollinating wasps (Agaoninae, Kradibiinae, and Tetrapusiinae) are the mutualistic partners of the fig trees ...

(fig wasps) which

pollinate Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds, a ...

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

s or are otherwise associated with figs, a

coevolution In biology, coevolution occurs when two or more species reciprocally affect each other's evolution through the process of natural selection. The term sometimes is used for two traits in the same species affecting each other's evolution, as well ...

al relationship that has been developing for at least 80 million years. Pollinating fig wasps are specific to specific figs. The common fig ''

Ficus carica The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

'' is pollinated by ''

Blastophaga psenes ''Blastophaga psenes'' is a wasp species in the genus '' Blastophaga''. It pollinates the common fig ''Ficus carica'' and the closely related ''Ficus palmata''. Without a colony or nest, these wasps breed in figs and the adults live for only a f ...

''.

References

* Proctor, M., Yeo, P. & Lack, A. (1996). ''The Natural History of Pollination''. Timber Press, Portland, OR.

External links

The Fig Web. ''Blastophaga''
Agaonidae Hymenoptera genera Taxa named by Johann Ludwig Christian Gravenhorst {{Chalcidoidea-stub