Abstract
Ever since it was coined by Ehrlich and Raven1, the term ‘coevolution’ has often been used indiscriminately in interpretations of insect–plant relationships, although in the meantime it became more precisely defined. To avoid misleading interpretations, it is advisable to restrict the use of this term to cases in which ‘reciprocal evolutionary change in interacting species’2 can be proved at least by circumstantial evidence. Reciprocal evolutionary changes occur in two interacting organisms, if symmetrical selection pressures act, that is, if a change in the traits of organism A selects the organism B for a corresponding change. This happens if the existence (the overall fitness) of organism A depends on the coexistence of organism B, and vice versa. Fig species and most fig wasp species are the textbook examples of such symmetrical interactions, as neither would exist without the other.
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