FIG WASPS - MECHANISMS OF POLLEN TRANSFER IN MALVANTHERA AND PHARMACOSYCEA FIGS (MORACEAE)

Pollination of the pistillate fig flowers (Ficus spp.) has crucial eff ects for the figs and the pollinating wasps (Agaonidae). It allows nor mal development, of seeds and wasps. Some agaonid groups have evolved pockets and corbiculae to carry pollen, while others carry it in the i ntersegmental membranes and other hidden areas of the body. Single fem ale specimens of Pleistodontes rieki Wiebes, Robertsia mandibularis Bo ucek, Tetrapus americanus Mayr and Tetrapus sp., the first two from Ne w Guinea and the Tetrapus spp. from Costa Pica were studied with scann ing electron microscopy. Some Pleistodontes species (Old World) have p ollen cavities in the expanded scapes; they also carry pollen in the r idges and laminae of the mandibles. Tetrapus species (New World) carry pollen in cavities located behind the mandibular appendages and in th e lamellae, ridges and teeth of the mandibles. These ways of carrying pollen may be intermediate between pollen transport in the intersegmen tal membranes, and in pockets or corbiculae. The evolution of such mec hanisms may preserve pollen from desiccation. These structures may hav e similar functions to the pollinium of some plants that are also poll inated by specific insects. It is suggested that some fig wasps that b ecome dusted with pollen in the syconia where they develop, and remove most of it once outside, fill up the ''spurious'' pockets, and other elaborate pollen-carrying structures outside the syconia. Abundant pol len grains were also found among the mouth parts of Robertsia mandibul aris (Sycoecinae) a non-pollinating fig wasp.