ABSTRACT
Wasp society around a single g can be incredibly complex. Not only is each g species required to be pollinated by its own obligate g-wasp species (and consequently, for its survival as a species), but also additional g wasps, of at least three other genera. These preferably or obligatively utilize a particular g species for their mating and birthing grounds (and in some cases, also burial grounds), while not contributing (at least not directly) to the pollination process. Such nonpollinating wasps have been traditionally referred to in the literature as “counterfeit” or “parasitic” wasps because they are not “required” or “utilized” by the g for its pollination process. The shifting of language is in step with our politically correct times, and also, happily, opens the door to a genuinely revised and expanded and hopefully also more accurate understanding of the role of these counterfeit wasps in the overall scheme of things, from the vantage points of both the Ficus host and the wasp pollinator, its cohorts, enemies, and cousins. Further-and here is the really surprising part-the g wasp community provides a microcosm for thinking about Ficus and ourselves (in Chapter 9) and evolution and coevolution in general. And because this (successful) mutualism has survived and continuously evolved since its inception over 60 million years ago, it (i.e., the gs and their true and counterfeit wasps and their all-around mutualism) may even hold, within the deep interstices of a receptive g, some lessons (not to mention some chemistry, also to be discussed in Chapter 9) for us and our work to heal the planet from the evil we have bestowed upon it in the process of our evolution to date.
