Mating ecology of the nonpollinating fig wasps ofFicus ingens

Abstract

The males of many fig wasps fight fatally for mating opportunities. The concentration of females in space has been proposed as one factor selecting for their aggressive behaviour. We studied the temporal distribution of receptive females to obtain a clearer impression of the operational sex ratio in figs. Females of nonpollinating species emerged from figs over a protracted period of time and this resulted in an extremely male-biased operational sex ratio, conducive to extreme fighting. Since there were so few receptive females at any one time, a male could defend an eclosing female. Consequently, the largest,Otitesella longicaudamale in a fig had a much higher mating success than smaller males. This suggests that larger males have a larger fitness advantage than larger females and a Trivers–Willard effect could have important implications for sex allocation. Apterous and seemingly nondispersing males routinely left their figs. Such dispersal can affect both (1) sex allocation by reducing the degree of local mate competition between brothers and (2) male dimorphism by reducing the mating opportunities of males with a dispersing morphology. We show that the wingless digitata males of theOtitesella digitataspecies group disperse on to leaves close to their natal fig. An extremely male-biased sex ratio resulted in almost allO. longicaudafemales being mated. These findings suggest that the classical concept of the fig wasp mating system is too simplistic and that important assumptions of sex allocation models are violated.