''Tetrapus'' is a genus of fig wasp native to the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

. Fig wasps have an

obligate {{wiktionary, obligate As an adjective, obligate means "by necessity" (antonym ''facultative'') and is used mainly in biology in phrases such as: * Obligate aerobe, an organism that cannot survive without oxygen * Obligate anaerobe, an organism that ...

mutualism with the

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 ...

species they pollinate. ''Tetrapus'' pollinates figs in the

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

Pharmacosycea ''Pharmacosycea'' is one of six subgenera currently recognised in the genus ''Ficus''. It was proposed by E. J. H. Corner in 1967 to unite section ''Pharmacosycea'' with ''Oreosycea''. Recent molecular phylogenies has shown that the subgenus i ...

''. ''Tetrapus'' appears to be the sole genus of the subfamily Tetrapusiinae and a basal clade among the fig-pollinating wasps. The genus is estimated to be 87.5 million years old using cytochrome oxidase nucleotide sequences, and more than 34.5 million years old based on a fossil from Florissant, Colorado in the United States.

References

Agaonidae Hymenoptera genera Taxa named by Gustav Mayr {{Chalcidoidea-stub