Agaonidae

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Agaonidae
Temporal range: Priabonian–Present
Blastophaga psenes
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Superfamily: Chalcidoidea
Family: Agaonidae
Walker, 1848
Subfamilies

Agaoninae

Kradibiinae

Sycophaginae

Tetrapusiinae

Female Elisabethiella comptoni
Male Elisabethiella comptoni

The family Agaonidae is a group of pollinating and nonpollinating

Tetrapusiinae) are the mutualistic partners of the fig trees. The non-pollinating fig wasps are parasitoids. Extinct forms from the Eocene and Miocene are nearly identical to modern forms, suggesting that the niche has been stable over geologic time.[1]

Prior to the final ripening of the fig, wingless males emerge from the galls they developed in. The males enter the galls of their winged sibling females and mate with them. Pollinating and non-pollinating wasps alike reproduce using fig inflorescences and developing in flower ovaries. Additionally, non-pollinating wasps can parasitize the larvae of primary galling wasps.[2]

Taxonomy

The family has changed several times since its taxonomic appearance after the work of Francis Walker in 1846[3] described from the wasp genus Agaon. Previously the subfamilies Epichrysomallinae, Otitesellinae, Sycoecinae, Sycoryctinae,

Sycophaginae have been placed within the family Agaonidae.[6]
Within the Sycophaginae, some changes were made after the molecular phylogeny of the subfamily:
synonymed under the genus Sycophaga
.

Ecology

Wasps from the three subfamilies

Sycophaginae are parasites of the Ficus, developing in the fruits after other wasps have pollinated them. Nevertheless, some species in the genus Sycophaga have a controversial status; as they enter the fig by its ostiole, they possibly bring pollen
inside the fig and might pollinate it.

Morphological adaptations

The pollinating female fig wasps are winged and in general dark, while the males are mostly wingless and whitish. This difference of color is probably due to a clear split in the gender role. Once they have mated, male and female fig wasps have different fates. In some fig species, such as

oviposit
in it, while the male dies after chewing a hole. As the fig is closed by a tight
mandibular appendages to help them crawl into the figs. These appendages are adapted to the host fig species, with for instance spiraled ostioles matched by spiral mandibular appendages.[8]
The nonpollinating wasps also have developed impressive morphological adaptations to deposit eggs inside the fig from the outside, in the form of an extremely long ovipositor.

Subfamilies and genera

Agaoninae

Kradibiinae

Sycophaginae

Tetrapusiinae

Extinct genera

References

  1. PMID 20554563
    .
  2. ^ Pereira R.A.S., Prado A.P., Larasson S. Non-pollinating wasps distort the sex ratio of pollinating fig wasps. (2005). Oikos. 110(3), 613-619
  3. ^ Walker F (1846). List of the specimens of Hymenopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. Part 1 Chalcidites. pp. vii+100pp.
  4. ^ Bouček Z (1988). Australasian Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera). A biosystematic revision of genera of fourteen families with a reclassification of species. pp. 832pp.
  5. S2CID 85436401
    .
  6. S2CID 86061702
    .
  7. PMID 21696591
    .
  8. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.1996.tb00003.x
    .
  9. ^ Blastophaga psenes Linnaeus, figweb.org
  10. ^ Eupristina verticillata Waterston, figweb.org
  11. ^ Researchers Sequence Genomes of Two Fig Species and Pollinator Wasp, sci-news; Oct. 14, 2020
  12. ^ Kradibia Saunders Archived 2020-08-01 at the Wayback Machine, figweb.org
  13. ^ Universal Chalcidoidea Database – Archaeagaon , Natural History Museum, London
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