NEMATODES ASSOCIATED WITH FIG WASPS, PEGOSCAPOS SPP (AGAONIDAE), AND SYCONIA OF NATIVE FLORIDIAN FIGS (FICUS SPP)

Syconia in successive developmental phases from Ficus lavigata Vahl (F . citrifolia Miller sensu DeWolf 1960) (Moraceae) and successive life stages of its fig wasp pollinator, Pegoscapus sp. (P. assuetus (Grandi ) sensu Wiebes 1983) (Agaonidae) were dissected to elucidate their ass ociation with two undescribed species of nematodes. Parasitodiplogaste r sp. (Diplogasteridae) are transported by female Pegoscapus sp, into the cavity of a phase B syconium as third-stage juveniles (J3), where they molt to the J4 stage and greatly increase in size in the hemocoel of the fig wasp after it begins to pollinate and oviposit in female f lorets. The J4 exit the wasp cadaver in a phase B or early phase C syc onium, and molt to adults that mate and lay eggs. New J3 infect the ne xt generation of female or male wasps as they emerge from their galls in phase D figs. Mated entomogenous females of Schistonchus sp. (Aphel enchoididae) are transported in the hemocoel of female wasps to the fi g cavity of a phase B syconium. Female Schistonchus sp. exit the wasp and parasitize immature male florets causing an exudate, the developme nt of hypertrophied epidermal cells of the anther filaments and anther s, and aberrations of the anther filament, anthers, and pollen. At lea st one generation of Schistonchus sp. occurs in the male florets. Ento mogenous females appear at about the time that fig wasps molt to adult s in their galls in late phase C syconia. Another Schistonchus sp. was recovered from females of P. mexicanus (Ashmead) (P. jimenezi (Grandi ) sensu Wiebes 1983) and from the syconia of F. aurea Nuttall and appe ars to have a life cycle similar to that described for the Schistonchu s sp. from F. laevigata.