THE BEHAVIOR AND MORPHOLOGY OF THE FIG WASPS 
PEGOSCAPUS ASSUETUS AND P. JIMENEZP: 
DESCRIPTIONS AND SUGGESTED BEHAVIORAL 
CHARACTERS FOR PHYLOGENETIC STUDIES 
By Steven A. Frank * 2 
Department of Zoology 
University of Florida 
Gainesville, FL 3261 1 
Figs ( Ficus spp., Moraceae) and their pollinator wasps (Agaoni- 
dae) are the most intricately coevolved of the plant-insect mutual- 
isms. The necessity of the tiny wasps for good fruit set in cultivated 
figs [ Ficus carica (L.)] was recognized over two thousand years ago 
by Aristotle and his pupil Theophrastus, and the details of pollina- 
tion in this species were understood by the early part of this century 
(Condit 1947). It was only fifteen years ago, however, that the tre- 
mendous diversity in pollination mechanisms among the approxi- 
mately 900 species of figs began to be appreciated (Ramirez 1969; 
Galil and Eisikowitch 1969; Chopra and Kaur 1969). It is generally 
accepted that each fig species is pollinated by a unique species of fig 
wasp (Ramirez 1970a; Wiebes 1979). There is much variability in fig 
inflorescence morphology, which is associated (by host specificity) 
with variability in fig wasp morphology (Ramirez 1974) and behav- 
ior (Galil and Meiri 1981). Although general trends in the mecha- 
nism of pollination across subtaxa of Ficus and Agaonidae can be 
inferred from fig inflorescence and fig wasp morphology (Ramirez 
1974), the actual details of both pollen collecting and pollination by 
the wasps have only been studied in a few species. Among the 
monoecious figs, Galil and Snitzer-Pasternak (1970) studied the pol- 
lination of Ficus religiosa (L.) by the fig wasp Blastophaga quadra- 
ticeps (Mayr); Galil and Eisikowitch (1969, 1974) studied F. 
sycomorus (L.) and its pollinator Ceratosolen arabicus (Mayr); 
Joseph and Abdurahiman (1981) described pollination of F. race - 
'Hymenoptera: Agaonidae 
2 Current address: Division of Biological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann 
Arbor, Ml 48109 
Manuscript received by the editor June I, 1984 
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