POLLINATION IN FICUS RELIGIOSA L. AS CONNECTED WITH THE STRUCTURE AND MODE OF ACTION OF THE POLLEN POCKETS OF BLASTOPHAGA QUADRATICEPS MAYR

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Summary: Blastophaga quadraticeps, the legitimate pollinator of Ficus religiosa, possesses two thoracic pockets in which pollen is stored for subsequent introduction into the young figs. In nature, pocket‐loading takes place in the nearly ripe fig at the male phase. Impregnated female wasps leave their galls, approach the ripe anthers, and load the pockets by very swift movements of the forelegs. Then they leave the fig via narrow channels bored by the males. Upon entering young receptive figs, the female wasps begin oviposition, during which pocket‐emptying and pollination take place.The pollen pocket of Blastophaga quadraticeps is a complex and highly specialized structure rather than a mere depression or fold of the body wall. Each pocket is a small saccular organ with well‐defined openings. The two marginal exits are very narrow. The third opening is the largest. It gaps widely when the adjacent sternite is touched parallel to the inner border of the pocket and closes shortly afterwards.Loading of the pocket is achieved by two separate actions, which follow each other: The legs transfer the pollen to the thorax and then the pollen is absorbed by some inherent mechanism of the pocket itself, through the wide entrance which opens at the touch of the legs. A technique for artificial loading with various materials (spores, iron particles, etc.) affords good means of studying the inner structure of the pocket.As yet no satisfactory explanation can be offered as to which forces are responsible for the opening of the pocket and the mechanism of pollen absorption.

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit: