The intimate mutualism between fig wasps and figs has long captivated biologists, and new
phylogenies are now uncovering its evolutionary history. Fig-pollinating wasps evolved just …

Over the past decade a proliferation of research has enriched and dramatically altered our
understanding of the biology of figs, their pollinator wasps, and the myriad of other …

Mutualisms play a key role in most ecosystems, yet the mechanisms that prevent
overexploitation of the mutualistic relationship are still poorly understood. In the mutualism …

Theory predicts that mutualisms should be vulnerable to invasion by cheaters, yet
mutualistic interactions are both ancient and diverse. What prevents one partner from …

How cooperation originates and persists in diverse species, from bacteria to multicellular
organisms to human societies, is a major question in evolutionary biology. A large literature …

The interaction between Ficus (Moraceae) and their pollinating wasps (Chalcidoidea:
Agaonidae; more than 700 species‐specific couples) is one of the most specialized …

1. There are over 700 species of fig trees in the tropics and several thousand species of fig
wasps are associated with their syconia (inflorescences). These wasps comprise a …

Studies of the evolution of helping have traditionally used the explanatory frameworks of
reciprocity and altruism towards relatives, but recently there has been an increasing interest …

The higher order classification of both Agaonidae and Ficus reflects convergent adap-tation
and not monophyly. A remarkable match exists between the classification of Ficus and …

The ancient interaction between figs (Ficus, Moraceae) and their pollinating fig wasps is an
unusual example of a mutualism between plants and gall-inducing insects. This review …