Fig wasps emerging from the fig of Ficus sur they have bred in.

~^~

Some years ago I heard about these type wasps and was fascinated. I started a poem and forgot it. just found and finished it today, They say there are thousands of different type wasps to suit all the varities of fig trees and bushes.;-)

~%~

The tiny female wasp crawled into the hole at the
bottom of the special flower insinuating herself
into the core which ultimately becomes a fig

She layed her eggs inside the fruit and watched
her young hatching, then she died, then the baby
wasps fight their way out, fly off to find another flowering fig where the process repeats itself

Thousands of different kinds of wasps pollinate
the different types of fig trees,without the wasps
the fig tree is barren and produces no fruit

How many of us eat figs never knowing that
a mother wasp gave birth to her her babies
inside it,though babies left ,the mother died inside

There are  Religious fig trees considered holy
by the Hindus, Buddhists Jains, and others, The
Buddha was said to have become enlightened
sitting under the fig tree

It was  fig leaves Adam and Eve covered
themselves with in the Garden of Eden, and
Jesus cursed a fig tree for not bearing fruit

Fig wasps can breed nowhere else but inside figs, a relationship that is a classic example of an obligate mutualism (neither party can survive without the other) that has evolved over the last 60 or so million years.

Thanks to our awesome Creator  !

ET-2008