Morphological Differences between Pollinating Fig Wasps of Ficus pumila L. var. pumila and var. awkeotsang (Makino) Corner and Their Asymmetric Host Specificity
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Kong, Siu-Wah
Abstract
One Ficus species harboring one unique Agaoninae pollinating fig wasp species is generally accepted under the idea of fig-fig wasp mutualism and their co-evolution theory. Previous studies have presumed that creeping fig, Ficus pumila L. var. pumila and jelly fig, F. pumila L. var. awkeotsang (Makino) Corner are pollinated by the same pollinating fig wasp species, Wiebesia pumilae (Hill). Jelly fig is an economic crop in forestry and it has been replanted from mountainous region to low elevation in Taiwan since 1980s. Subsequently, cultivators found that jelly fig at lowland cannot successfully be pollinated/ utilized by pollinating fig wasps from creeping fig. Recent molecular study found that there is no genetic differentiation between jelly fig and creeping fig. But there is certain degree of genetic difference (partial mt COI genes up to 12%, over species level) between pollinating fig wasps in jelly fig and creeping fig. In this study, author examined whether there are morphological differences between pollinating fig wasps of jelly fig and creeping fig (Part I) and explored whether the host specificity of two pollinating fig wasp species is different towards two different fig varieties, jelly fig and creeping fig (Part II). In part I, the morphological differences between pollinating fig wasps of creeping fig and jelly fig are described. To compare the polarity and state of morphological characters in pollinating fig wasps of Wiebesia pumilae (Hill) and W. awkeotsang n. sp., two congeneric outgroup species, W. callida (Grandi) and W. contubernalis (Grandi) are examined. Finally 17 morphological characters (12 female and 5 male), of these characters, 13 are quantitative and 4 are qualitative, were examined and described. In part II, to evaluate the host specificity of two closely related pollinating fig wasp species, Wiebesia pumila and W. awkeotsang towards two fig varieties through a series of experiments were carried out. Experiments included: (I) wasp introduction experiment, introducing two wasp species into two different fig varieties; (II) seed germination experiment, estimating the weight, germination percentages and T50 (time needed for 50% of seeds to germinate) of seeds produced from wasp introduction experiment and (III) census of wasps’ offspring in Kaohsiung city, examining pollinating fig wasp species in syconia of creeping fig in Kaohsiung city and nearby. (I) The wasp introduction experiment show that two pollinator fig wasp species have no host preference difference on female syconia of two fig varieties. For male syconia, W. pumilae could not attracted by jelly fig, W. awkeotsang instead are attracted by two fig varieties. (II) The seeds produced from intra- and interspecific pollination present no different in weight and germination percentage, while number of germinated trail is significantly different (interspecific [3/14] versus intraspecific [9/10]). Comparing the T50, interspecific pollinated seeds perform much slower than intraspecific pollinated seeds (47-56 versus 20-48 days). (III) Census of pollinating fig wasp offspring in Kaohsiung city and nearby, 17% of collected creeping fig syconia (totally 78 syconia) found inside harboring Wiebesia awkeotsang and none of individuals can naturally leave the syconia. Combined morphological and ecological evidences suggested that the taxonomic status of pollinating figs wasp of jelly fig and creeping fig should separate into two definite species, W. pumilae and W. awkeotsang.
Subjects
creeping fig (Ficus pumila L. var. pumila)
Ficus-Agaoninae specificity
host specificity
jelly fig (Ficus pumila L. var. awkeotsang (Makino) Corner)
pollinating fig wasps
Wiebesia pumilae (Hill)
Wiebesia awkeotsang n. sp.
SDGs
Type
thesis
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