"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." You’ve probably heard rumors about figs being filled with dead wasps. That's only sort of true. It is ...

Researchers from Uppsala University and elsewhere have been studying the effect of rising temperatures on the lifespan of pollinating fig wasps. The findings show that the wasps lived much shorter ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Figs and fig wasps have evolved to help each other out: Fig wasps lay their eggs inside the fruit where the wasp larvae can safely develop, and in return, the wasps pollinate the figs.

The fig wasp pollination mutualism is a quintessential example of an obligate ecological interaction, wherein minute pollinator wasps and their Ficus hosts engage in an intricate and enduring ...

The world's oldest known example of a fig wasp has been found on the Isle of Wight. The fossil wasp is almost identical to the modern species, proving that this tiny but specialised insect has ...

An example of "fallen fig fauna": a beetle larvae which feeds on the fig from the inside, then migrate to the soil when the ripe fruit falls to the ground. Credit: Luciano Palmieri An example of ...

A female pollinating wasp, Platyscapa awekei, which pollinates the Wonderboom fig, a famous fig tree in South Africa. Simon van Noort In his 1859 book, On the Origin of Species, British naturalist ...

This article was taken from the November 2014 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by ...

Mutually beneficial relationships are common, but what happens when one partner stops enforcing the other's good behavior? An exception to the usual relationship between figs and their ...