London: They may only be 1.5 mm in size, but the tiny wasps that pollinate fig trees can transport pollen 10 times faster than previously recorded by any insect and make the trees resistant to forest fragmentation, says a new study.
Scientists from the University of Leeds said fig wasps travel these distances seeking trees to lay their eggs, which offers hope that trees pollinated by similar creatures have a good chance of surviving if they become isolated through deforestation.
"Fig trees provide very important food for vertebrates," explains Stephen Compton of the Leeds Faculty of Biological Sciences.
"More birds and animals feed on fig trees than on any other plant in the rainforest. Our research shows that trees pollinated by this type of insect should be very resistant to forest fragmentation."
"Fig wasps are weak flyers," added Compton. "They fly up in an air column and are then carried by wind until they sense host figs at which point they drop close to the ground and hunt out the scent of the tree which is specific to them.
"As adult wasps live for just 48 hours, they must have travelled these distances incredibly fast. It took our field scientists and volunteers nearly two weeks to walk 250 km and map the fig trees used in the research."
Using a unique mix of field work and genetic tests, the researchers tracked the movement of pollen between trees and used this as the marker for insect movement.
The scientists mapped all the African fig trees (Ficus sycomorus) along 250 km of the Ugab River valley in the Namib Desert, said a Leeds release.
Due to the climate, the trees were only able to survive near the river, which made it possible to identify each of the 79 trees in the area individually.
These findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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