How Many Parents Do the Wasps from a Fig Have?

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Abstract
In 3 fruit crops of Costa Rican lowland deciduous forest figs [Ficus spp.], the mean number of pollinating agaonid female wasps which entered the figs was 1.07, 2.97 and 1.72 (93, 53, and 52%, respectively, of the figs received only 1 wasp). In these crops, the males would be quite likely to mate with their sisters since mating occurs in the fig before the newly emerged females leave. In 1 crop, there was a mean of 7.2 potential mothers/fig (maximum of 32 wasps/fig), and possibily the offspring within one of these figs would be of much more heterogeneous parentage. Since the 1st wasps to enter the fig probably do most of the pollinating and ovipositing, these figs may also have only a few mothers for most of the offspring that they contain.

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