''Ceratosolen'' is an

Old World The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously ...

wasp genus in the family

Agaonidae The family Agaonidae is a group of pollinating fig wasps. They spend their larval stage inside the fruits of Ficus, figs. The pollinating wasps (Agaoninae, Kradibiinae, and Tetrapusiinae) are the mutualism (biology), mutualistic partners of the ...

(

fig wasp Fig wasps are wasps of the superfamily Chalcidoidea which spend their larval stage inside fig syconia. Some are pollinators but others simply feed off the plant. The non-pollinators belong to several groups within the superfamily Chalcidoidea, ...

s). They are

pollinators A pollinator is an animal that moves pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma of a flower. This helps to bring about fertilization of the ovules in the flower by the male gametes from the pollen grains. Insects are the ma ...

of the monoecious

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Moraceae, native to the Mediterranean region, together with western and southern Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and i ...

subsections ''Sycomorus'' and ''Sycocarpus'', and the section ''Neomorphe'', all belonging to the subgenus ''Sycomorus''. The genus is native to the

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. Th ...

Afrotropical The Afrotropical realm is one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Sub-Saharan Africa, the southern Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. It was formerly known as the Ethiopi ...

Indomalayan The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Ind ...

and

Australasian realm The Australasian realm is one of eight biogeographic realms that is coincident with, but not (by some definitions) the same as, the geographical region of Australasia. The realm includes Australia, the island of New Guinea (comprising Papua Ne ...

Biology

Adults enter through the fig

ostiole An ''ostiole'' is a small hole or opening through which algae or fungi release their mature spores. The word is a diminutive of wikt:ostium, "ostium", "opening". The term is also used in higher plants, for example to denote the opening of the ...

, a narrow, bract-lined passage, then pollinate and attempt to oviposit on the flowers. Flower

ovule In seed plants, the ovule is the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells. It consists of three parts: the ''integument'', forming its outer layer, the ''nucellus'' (or remnant of the sporangium, megasporangium), ...

s that receive an egg become galled and the larvae consume the gall tissue. Pollinated flowers missed by the wasps produce one seed each. The adult offspring emerge from the gall and mate in the fig, before the winged female wasps disperse, carrying the flower pollen with them.

Associations

Several non-pollinating wasp species of the Chalcidoidea exploit the mutualism. ''

Sycophaga sycomori ''Sycophaga'' is a mainly Afrotropical genus of fig wasps that live on the section ''Sycomorus'' of the monoecious fig subgenus, ''Sycomorus'', and one of several fig wasp genera to exploit its mutualism with '' Ceratosolen'' wasps. They enter ...

'' oviposits inside the short-style flowers, thereby stimulating the growth of

endosperm The endosperm is a tissue produced inside the seeds of most of the flowering plants following double fertilization. It is triploid (meaning three chromosome sets per nucleus) in most species, which may be auxin-driven. It surrounds the Embryo#Pla ...

tissue and the enlargement and ripening of the

syconium Syconium (: syconia) is the type of fruit borne by figs (genus ''Ficus''), formed by an enlarged, fleshy, hollow receptacle with multiple ovaries on the inside surface. In essence, it is really a fleshy stem with a number of flowers, so it is co ...

which holds the wasp-bearing drupelets, without pollination taking place. The parasitic species ''

Apocrypta guineensis __NOTOC__ ''Apocrypta'' is an Old World genus of parasitic Ficus, fig wasps in the family Pteromalidae. They are parasitoids of gall-wasps in the Sycophagini tribe, and especially ''Ceratosolen'' species, Pollinator, pollinators of the ''Sycomoru ...

'' and '' Sycoscapter niger'' use long ovipositors to pierce the fig wall to infect the larvae during their development inside the flower

gall Galls (from the Latin , 'oak-apple') or ''cecidia'' (from the Greek , anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to benign tumors or war ...

s, and consequently reduce pollinator production.

Species

There are more than 60 described species, including: * '' Ceratosolen abnormis'' Wiebes, 1963 * '' Ceratosolen acutatus'' Mayr, 1906 * ''

Ceratosolen adenospermae ''Ceratosolen'' is an Old World wasp genus in the family Agaonidae (fig wasps). They are pollination, pollinators of the monoecious Ficus, fig subsections ''Sycomorus'' and ''Sycocarpus'', and the section ''Neomorphe'', all belonging to the subg ...

'' Wiebes, 1965 * '' Ceratosolen albulus'' Wiebes, 1963 * '' Ceratosolen appendiculatus'' (Mayr, 1885) * '' Ceratosolen arabicus'' Mayr, 1906 * '' Ceratosolen armipes'' Wiebes, 1963 * '' Ceratosolen bakeri'' Grandi, 1927 * ''

Ceratosolen bianchii ''Ceratosolen'' is an Old World wasp genus in the family Agaonidae (fig wasps). They are pollinators of the monoecious fig subsections ''Sycomorus'' and ''Sycocarpus'', and the section ''Neomorphe'', all belonging to the subgenus ''Sycomorus''. ...

'' Wiebes, 1963 * ''

Ceratosolen bimerus ''Ceratosolen'' is an Old World wasp genus in the family Agaonidae (fig wasps). They are pollinators of the monoecious fig subsections ''Sycomorus'' and ''Sycocarpus'', and the section ''Neomorphe'', all belonging to the subgenus ''Sycomorus''. ...

'' Wiebes, 1965 * ''

Ceratosolen fusciceps ''Ceratosolen'' is an Old World wasp genus in the family Agaonidae (fig wasps). They are pollinators of the monoecious fig subsections ''Sycomorus'' and ''Sycocarpus'', and the section ''Neomorphe'', all belonging to the subgenus ''Sycomorus''. ...

'' (Mayr, 1885) * '' Ceratosolen solmsi'' (Mayr, 1885) * ''

Ceratosolen solomensis ''Ceratosolen'' is an Old World wasp genus in the family Agaonidae (fig wasps). They are pollinators of the monoecious fig subsections ''Sycomorus'' and ''Sycocarpus'', and the section ''Neomorphe'', all belonging to the subgenus ''Sycomorus''. ...

'' Wiebes, 1994 * '' Ceratosolen sordidus'' Wiebes, 1963 * '' Ceratosolen stupefactus'' Wiebes, 1989 * '' Ceratosolen vechti'' Wiebes, 1963 * '' Ceratosolen vetustus'' Wiebes, 1994 * '' Ceratosolen vissali'' Wiebes, 1981 * '' Ceratosolen wui'' Chen & Chou, 1997

References

Agaonidae Hymenoptera genera Taxa named by Gustav Mayr {{Chalcidoidea-stub