Agaonidae
{{Short description|Family of wasps}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| name = Agaonidae
| fossil_range = {{fossilrange|Priabonian|Present}}
| image = Blastophaga psenes.jpg
| image_caption = Blastophaga psenes
| taxon = Agaonidae
| authority = Walker, 1848
| subdivision_ranks = Subfamilies
| subdivision = Agaoninae
}}
File:Agaonidae 2019 10 10 10 17 37 3249b.jpg
File:Agaonidae 2019 10 10 10 46 58 3485.jpg
The family Agaonidae is a group of pollinating fig wasps. They spend their larval stage inside the fruits of figs. The pollinating wasps (Agaoninae, Kradibiinae, and Tetrapusiinae) are the mutualistic partners of the fig trees. Extinct forms from the Eocene and Miocene are nearly identical to modern forms, suggesting that the niche has been stable over geologic time.
Females emerge from ripe figs and fly to another fig tree with developing syconia (which contain the flowers). They enter the syconium via the ostiole, pollinate the flowers, and lay their eggs in some of the ovules. The ovules containing eggs develop into galls that support the growth of the wasp larvae. Prior to the final ripening of the fig, wingless males emerge from the galls they developed in. The males enter the galls of their winged sibling females, mate with them and die within the fruit. The newly hatched females then make their way out of the fruit continuing this cycle.{{cite web |last1=van Noort |first1=Simon |last2=Rasplus |first2=Jean-Yves |title=Figs and fig wasps of the world |url=https://www.figweb.org/Interaction/Life_cycle/index.htm |website=figweb |access-date=7 July 2024}}
Taxonomy
The family has changed several times since its taxonomic appearance after the work of Francis Walker in 1846{{cite book | vauthors = Walker F | title = List of the specimens of Hymenopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. Part 1 Chalcidites | year = 1846 | pages = vii+100pp }} described from the wasp genus Agaon.
Previously the subfamilies Epichrysomallinae, Otitesellinae, Sycoecinae, Sycoryctinae, Sycophaginae, and Agaoninae were the subdivisions of the family.{{cite book | vauthors = Bouček Z | title = Australasian Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera). A biosystematic revision of genera of fourteen families with a reclassification of species | year = 1988 | pages = 832pp }} Recent works building strong molecular phylogenies with an extended sampling size have changed the composition of Agaonidae. The paraphyletic groups have been excluded; Epichrysomallinae was raised to family status (Epichrysomallidae), whereas Otitesellinae, Sycoecinae, Sycophaginae, and Sycoryctinae were transferred to Pteromalidae. New subfamilies have been instated (Kradibiinae and Tetrapusiinae).
Ecology
The relationship between fig trees and agaonid fig wasps is an obligate mutualism that has evolved over a period of about sixty million years.
Morphological adaptations
The pollinating female fig wasps are winged and in general dark, while the males are mostly wingless and whitish. This difference of color is probably due to a clear split in the gender role. Once they have mated, male and female fig wasps have different fates. In some fig species, such as Ficus subpisocarpa or Ficus tinctoria, the males have to chew a hole for the females to leave their natal fig. The winged female wasps can fly over long distances before finding another fig to oviposit in it, while the male dies after chewing a hole.
As the fig is closed by a tight ostiole, the female wasps have developed adaptations to enter. First, the mandibles of the female wasps have developed specialized mandibular appendages to help them crawl into the figs. These appendages are adapted to the host fig species, with for instance spiraled ostioles matched by spiral mandibular appendages.{{cite journal | vauthors = van Noort S, Compton SG | title = Convergent evolution of agaonine and sycoecine (Agaonidae, Chalcidoidea) head shape in response to the constraints of host fig morphology | journal = Journal of Biogeography |date=July 1996 | volume = 23 | issue = 4 | pages = 415–24 | doi = 10.1111/j.1365-2699.1996.tb00003.x }}
Subfamilies and genera
=[[Agaoninae]]=
- Agaon {{au|Dalman, 1818}}
- Alfonsiella {{au|Waterston, 1920}}
- Allotriozoon {{au|Grandi, 1916}}
- Blastophaga {{au|Gravenhorst, 1829}}
- Blastophaga psenes {{au|Linnaeus}} (syn. Cynips psenes {{au|Linnaeus, 1758}})[http://www.figweb.org/Fig_wasps/Agaonidae/Agaoninae/Blastophaga/Blastophaga_psenes.htm Blastophaga psenes Linnaeus], figweb.org
- Courtella {{au|Kieffer, 1911}}
- Deilagaon {{au|Wiebes, 1977}}
- Dolichoris {{au|Hill, 1967}}
- Elisabethiella {{au|Grandi, 1928}}
- Eupristina {{au|Saunders, 1882}}
- Eupristina verticillata {{au|Waterston, 1921}}[http://www.figweb.org/Fig_wasps/Agaonidae/Agaoninae/Eupristina/Eupristina_verticillata.htm Eupristina verticillata Waterston], figweb.org[http://www.sci-news.com/genetics/ficus-wasp-genomes-08948.html Researchers Sequence Genomes of Two Fig Species and Pollinator Wasp], sci-news; Oct. 14, 2020
- Nigeriella {{au|Wiebes 1974}}
- Paragaon {{au|Joseph, 1959}}
- Pegoscapus {{au|Cameron, 1906}}
- Platyscapa {{au|Motschoulsky, 1863}}
- Pleistodontes {{au|Saunders, 1882}}
- Waterstoniella
- Wiebesia {{au|Boucek, 1988}}
=[[Kradibiinae]]=
- Ceratosolen {{au|Mayr, 1885}}
- Kradibia {{au|Saunders, 1883}} (syn. Liporrhopalum {{au|Waterston, 1920}})[https://www.figweb.org/Fig_wasps/Agaonidae/Kradibiinae/Kradibia/index.htm Kradibia Saunders] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801115222/http://www.figweb.org/Fig_wasps/Agaonidae/Kradibiinae/Kradibia/index.htm |date=2020-08-01 }}, figweb.org
=[[Tetrapus|Tetrapusiinae]]=
= Extinct genera =
- †Archaeagaon Insect Limestone, United Kingdom, Eocene (Priabonian)
- †Archaeagaon minutum (Donisthorpe)[https://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/data/chalcidoids/database/listChalcids.dsml?amp;Family=Pteromalidae&Superfamily=Chalcidoidea&Family=Agaonidae&Genus=Archaeagaon#gen_4 Universal Chalcidoidea Database – Archaeagaon ], Natural History Museum, London
References
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{{Hymenoptera}}
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