FIGS AND WASPS are a lucky pairing that dates back 64 million years. The fig is not a fruit but an “inverted inflorescence,” a mass of tiny flowers trapped inside a thick balloon. The queen wasp wiggles through a too-small opening in the fig, snapping off her wings in the process. While laying her eggs, she pollinates the flowers within, allowing the fi g to multiply. With both essential tasks complete, she perishes. After her children hatch, the males bite through the walls of the fig, only to fall to their deaths. This frees their sisters, who depart and begin the cycle again. In 2018, 50 years after the discovery of this classic case of mutualism, scientists saw that other insects were acting as freeloaders—colonizing the fig without pollinating it—further upending our notions of hosts, guests, and interlopers.
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