Fig-wasp mutualism is a policed contract where figs abort freeloaders that bring no pollen

Evidence

A fig is not a fruit but a syconium — a hollow chamber lined on the inside with hundreds of tiny flowers. Almost every one of the world’s roughly 750 fig species depends on its own species of fig wasp to pollinate it, a partnership some 80 million years old. Drawn by a species-specific scent, a pregnant female wasp forces her way through a narrow pore, often tearing off her wings and antennae in the process; she pollinates the flowers, lays her eggs, and dies inside. The fig recognizes its legitimate partner through volatile chemistry, while the geometry of the entrance and the chamber’s chemistry exclude the wrong species. … Many figs host “cheater” wasps that exploit the chamber without pollinating, and a fig can selectively abort a syconium that brings no pollen, punishing freeloaders. The partnership is not gentle cooperation but a tightly policed contract: recognition is also enforcement, and admission always implies the power to reject. — Jamal Awil, The Whispering Archive, 881

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘recognition is also enforcement’ idea connects to my notes on admission-br-rejection and gatekeeping dynamics in living systems.