I was reading something about weird facts that you think can’t be true but are, like how lobsters don’t age and how Neil Armstrong had to go through customs in Hawaii after returning from the moon. They’re all here.
The one I thought was the coolest, though, is how all figs have dead wasps in them.
-Over the years, Fig Wasps and Figs evolved into a mutual relationship (re: mutualism), in which one organism needs the other to survive (or, rather, reproduce).
-The female Fig Wasp needs to incubate her eggs, and she does so inside of a fig. She crams herself through the ostiole, which is a tiny passage at the top of the fig. In the process, she loses her antenna and wings, and is trapped in the fruit.
-The female fig Wasp pollinates the fig, while laying her eggs inside the fruit. The newly hatched male wasps spend their entire, pathetic lives digging tunnels through the fig, and apparently they are blind and wingless, so they are pretty much useless after that point. The female wasps, who are not blind or wingless, use these tunnels to escape to sweet, sweet freedom, only to meet the same fate as her mother in another fig.
-BUT WAIT. There are two types of figs: caprifigs and edible figs. Only caprifigs have the male flower parts needed for the wasp to lay her eggs. If the female wasp shoves herself into an edible fig, she just starves to death and is unable to lay her eggs. However, the edible fig plant still enjoys the pollination. “Thanks for the seed of life, wasp, now die with dignity and take your precious children with you!” says the fig plant.
-HOLD ON THOUGH. We still have a DEAD WASP TRAPPED INSIDE A FIG. I’ve definitely eaten a fig before, and never saw a wasp in it. The edible fig releases an enzyme called ficin that pretty much dissolves the dead, rotting wasp carcass into a protein, adding that nutrient to the fruit. That’s right, THE FIG IS ESSENTIALLY A CARNIVORE.
I suppose in the end, the fig’s fate is to dissolve in our stomach, so they don’t get off too easy. But seriously, what a crappy life for the wasp.
Anyway, freaking science, man.
