Quantitative tests of interaction between pollinating and non‐pollinating fig wasps on dioecious Ficus hispida

Abstract

Abstract. 1. The interaction between Ficus species and their pollinating wasps (Agaonidae) represents a striking example of a mutualism. Figs also shelter numerous non‐pollinating chalcids that exploit the fig–pollinator mutualism.2. Previous studies showed a weak negative correlation between numbers of pollinating and non‐pollinating adults emerging from the same fruit. Little is known about the patterns and intensities of interactions between fig wasps. In the Xishuangbanna tropical rainforests of China, the dioecious Ficus hispida L. is pollinated by Ceratosolen solmsi marchali Mayr and is also exploited by the non‐pollinators Philotrypesis pilosa Mayr, Philotrypesis sp., and Apocrypta bakeri Joseph. Here, the interaction of pollinator and non‐pollinators on F. hispida is studied quantitatively.3. The exact time of oviposition was determined for each species of fig wasp. Based on observational and experimental work it is suggested that (i) the relationship between pollinator and non‐pollinators is a positive one, and that the genus Philotrypesis appears to have no significant impact on the pollinator population, whereas Apocrypta has a significant effect on both Philotrypesis and Ceratosolen; (ii) gall numbers do not always increase with increasing number of foundresses, but developmental mortality of larvae correlates positively with the number of foundresses; and (iii) there is a positive correlation between non‐pollinator numbers and their rates of parasitism, but the three species of non‐pollinators differed in their rates of parasitism and show different effects on pollinator production.4. The rates of parasitism when combined with the coexistent percentage and developmental mortality, underpin the way non‐pollinating fig wasps successfully exploit and coexist stably in a fig–pollinator mutualism.