Abstract:

Fig-tree (Ficus) and its pollinating fig wasps (Hymenoptera:Chalcidoidea, Agaonidae) form an obligated mutualism, which is a model system for the study of coevolution. It is a fascinating question how the female florets distributed between wasps and seeds. In monoecious Ficus, the seeds and fig wasps are in conflict on the use of flower ovaries to reproduction in the same syconium. But in dioecious Ficus, seeds and wasps are grow on different trees, so there is no competition for female flowers. The style length of monoecious F.racemosa and dioecious F.auriculata was measured to compare the distribution of female florets. The results suggest that the style length distribution is single pick in F.racemosa while that is bimodal in F.auriculata. At the post-floret stage, fig pollinating wasps and seeds are produced in flowers with different pedicel length in F.racemosa. Most flowers near fig wall produce seeds while those projected into cavity produce wasps. In F.auriculata, the seeds and wasps are separated in seed figs and gall figs respectively. The spatial allocation of seeds and wasps suggest that dioecious Ficus are more evolved in the allocation of female florets.

Key words: monoecious, dioecious, Ficus, style length, ovipositor length