Differential Deployment of Sanctioning Mechanisms in Male and Female Host Trees in a Gynodioecious Fig–Wasp Mutualism

Fig trees (Ficus spp.) are only pollinated by fig wasps, whose larvae only use fig flowers as food. The trees ensure pollination by increasing the offspring mortality rates of wasps that fail to pollinate. This is achieved by selective investment to inflorescences, the figs that yield trees the most benefits (a process common to most angiosperms). Unlike previous work on sanctions in fig–wasp mutualisms, we used a gynodioecious host species, F. hispida, to show that sanctioning mechanisms differ between male and female trees, consistent with variable costs and benefits of pollen presence/absence to trees of each sex. These photographs illustrate the article “Differential deployment of sanctioning mechanisms in male and female host trees in a gynodioecious fig‐wasp mutualism” by Xiao‐Wei Zhang, Derek W. Dunn, Xiao‐Lan Wen, Bao‐Fa Sun, and Rui‐Wu Wang published in Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.259