Pierre Honore's profile

Ficus and Wasp - An ancient love affair

Pierre Honore
•
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
 
An ancient love affair
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Dr. Michael McLeish
 
For over 60 million years, long before humans when the Earth’s continents were placed much differently, the survival of a minute wasp and giant forest tree depended on one another. This relationship was so successful that this mutualism has diversified to provide a central role in the survival of birds, primates, bats, and other mammal species, and possibly ancient human populations, in contemporary ecosystems. This relationship adapted to life in the great tropical forests of world, and amazingly in extreme environments such as the Kalahari desert. About 750 species of fig trees, vines, or epiphytes are each pollinated by a specific wasp species that transfers pollen from one flower to another. For this service, figs support the reproduction of the wasp inside the fruit that contains the internalized flowers. The fig wasp mutualism is also a model system for scientific research into key questions in biology such as how one species evolves to become two. However, in this case, two species become four!
 
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This is an ongoing project that started in 2012. Here are few of the 500 specimens of 55 different species we collected on more than 10 000 km of road.
 
 The goal is to build an exhaustive collection of images of each species in order to help identification.
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This project is carried out by:
M. McLeish Ph.D. , M. Fougère-Danezan Ph.D.
Yu Fei Ph.D Student.
 
Pierre Honoré - Photographer.
 
Copyright © P.Honoré
 
 
F. tinctoria 
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
F. semicordata (montana and semicordata)
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
F. semicordata has special branches to carry the figs. These, are about 8m long.
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
figs of F. semicordata are sweet and test like apple. the special fruit branches are burried and fruits are growing in the soil.
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
F. tikoua.
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
This figs test like strawberry
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
F. ischnopoda
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
F. prostrata - Figs
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
F. pumila
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
F. hirta
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
F. hispida
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
F. gasparriniana var. laceratifolia
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
F. auriculata 
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
F.racemosa
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
botany Ficus conservation Ecology wasp fig Tree Fruit macro science
Ficus and Wasp - An ancient love affair
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Pierre Honore's profile

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Pierre Honore's profile
Toulouse, France

Ficus and Wasp - An ancient love affair

An ancient love affair/ une longue histoire d'amour

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