Don: Yael, have you heard the urban legend that the little crunchy seeds in figs are really      wasp eggs?

Yael: There might be something to that rumor, Don. Most figs wouldn't exist if it weren't      for special wasp "partners" that have been coevolving with fig trees for sixty million      years.

D: Really? How so?

Y: Figs have a mutual relationship with a family of tiny wasps called agaonid wasps.      Also known as fig wasps, they develop and spend most of their lives inside figs. And      figs can develop fruit only with the help of the wasps. Botanically, a fig isn't really a      fruit, but is a cluster of flowers. The smooth exterior of a fig encloses hundreds of tiny      flowers lining a central cavity. Because of their unusual anatomy, fig flowers can only      be accessed and pollinated through a very tiny opening at one end of the fig.

D: And fig wasps fit through the hole?

Y: You guessed it. The female wasp squeezes into the opening and lays her eggs inside      the fig. As she moves around she distributes pollen, fertilizing the flowers. Figs will      only ripen and produce seeds if pollinated.

D: So the crunchy bits really ARE wasp eggs?

Y: No Don, they're just seeds. The young wasps develop inside the fig as it ripens. They      hatch and mate inside the fig. The young females then exit the fig before it is      completely ripe. But there aren't wasp eggs or remnants in ripe figs, because figs      produce a protein-digesting enzyme that digests any wasps or eggs left inside. By the      time we eat a fig, the wasps have done their work and flown away or were digested      by the developing fig.  

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