Agujitas River, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica
Fig Newtons… Hum… We are all fascinated by the gooey paste, covered by soft pastry and the crunchy seeds that pepper the dark, sweet filling. We are not the only ones… Many other animals around the world also relish this fruit. Figs are eaten by everything from tiny ants to the monkeys we long to see so much.
But, what are we really eating?
One of the smallest residents of the rain forest that use the figs may be the most important for the fig itself. Tiny fig wasps, in the Agaonidae family, spend most of their lives inside fig fruits and are responsible for fig pollination. Female wasps wiggle their way into the fig through a hole in the end of the fruit and lay their eggs in developing flowers inside. Once they have laid their eggs, and pollinated the flowers the females die inside. Their young hatch just as the fleshy part of the fig begins to ripe. The males are born first. They copulate with the unborn females and then also die inside the fig fruit. When the females are born they exit the fig and disperse to find another fruiting fig where the cycle begins again.
Strangler fig trees, like the one shown in this picture, are some of the most abundant trees in the forest. They are easy to recognize by the intricate root system that coils itself around their host trees, binding its host in a deadly embrace.
But the question remains, what are we really eating when we eat a Fig Newton? Just a little extra protein…
Fig Newtons… Hum… We are all fascinated by the gooey paste, covered by soft pastry and the crunchy seeds that pepper the dark, sweet filling. We are not the only ones… Many other animals around the world also relish this fruit. Figs are eaten by everything from tiny ants to the monkeys we long to see so much.
But, what are we really eating?
One of the smallest residents of the rain forest that use the figs may be the most important for the fig itself. Tiny fig wasps, in the Agaonidae family, spend most of their lives inside fig fruits and are responsible for fig pollination. Female wasps wiggle their way into the fig through a hole in the end of the fruit and lay their eggs in developing flowers inside. Once they have laid their eggs, and pollinated the flowers the females die inside. Their young hatch just as the fleshy part of the fig begins to ripe. The males are born first. They copulate with the unborn females and then also die inside the fig fruit. When the females are born they exit the fig and disperse to find another fruiting fig where the cycle begins again.
Strangler fig trees, like the one shown in this picture, are some of the most abundant trees in the forest. They are easy to recognize by the intricate root system that coils itself around their host trees, binding its host in a deadly embrace.
But the question remains, what are we really eating when we eat a Fig Newton? Just a little extra protein…
