COMPARATIVE COMMUNITY ECOLOGY STUDIES ON OLD WORLD FIGS AND FIG WASPS

Abstract

Ficus and their species-specific pollinator wasps (Agaonidae) form a remarkable plant–insect obligate mutualism. Each monoecious fig species also shelters a community of nonpollinating chalcids, composed of both gallmakers and parasitoids. The few previous studies that took these species into account aimed at determining their potential effect on the mutualism. To go further, we argue that the fig wasps represent an interesting model for studies of community ecology. Figs and fig wasps of different groups were studied in Côte d'Ivoire to quantify local ecological interactions. Regardless of their fig host or taxonomical position, we identified three ecological groups of nonpollinating fig wasps on the basis of their timing of oviposition in the fig and on their oviposition behavior. Pollinating and nonpollinating fig wasps were shown to interact intimately, and to have a significant effect on the host plant in at least some cases. Each species of the community seems to preferentially oviposit in a part of the female flowers, depending on their depth inside the fig. Convergence in fig exploitation thus exists in various chalcid lineages, and the community structure and organization are very similar between fig species. Concepts developed in parasitoid community ecology could now be tested on this promising model.