It is Fig time, I eat them and often paint them. Today I learnt a new empowering word. Foundress.
I am almost as thrilled with the word ‘foundress’ as I was when I discovered the word ‘mistresspiece’.
This all came about because I arranged a still life for a future painting. 6 figs on my favourite plate.
At the time I pondered if the irregular area , obvious on a cut fig was anything to do with a fig wasp.
The life cycle of a fig wasp is an interdependent, lifelong cycle spent entirely between the inside of a fig’s flowering structure (called a syconium) and flight to a new tree.
On entering the syconium a female wasp becomes-
The Foundress
Finding a tree: A fertilized female wasp (the foundress) flies to a receptive fig tree guided by its specific scent.Squeezing inside: She enters the syconium through a tiny, tight opening called the ostiole.Sacrificing her body: The opening is so narrow that she typically breaks off her wings and antennae while squeezing through.
Pollinating flowers: Once inside the hollow cavity, she brushes against the flowers and transfers pollen she carried from her birth fig.Laying eggs: She inserts her egg-laying tube (ovipositor) into the ovaries of the tiny flowers to lay her eggs.
The mother/ foundress fate: Her job finished, the original female wasp dies. Enzymes in the fig dissolve her body.
Larval growth: The eggs hatch into small larvae (grubs) after several days.Feeding inside galls: Each larva feeds on the surrounding plant tissue inside a protective swelling called a gall.
Wingless male wasps emerge from their galls first. The males mate with the female wasps while the females are still trapped inside their galls.The wingless males chew an escape tunnel through the wall of the fig for the females, then die inside the fruit without ever seeing the outside world.
Before leaving their birth fig the newly fertilized females pass by the male flowers and become covered in fresh pollen.Restarting the cycle: They fly out through the tunnel made by the males to locate a new flowering fig tree and repeat the cycle.
You may have to read this a couple of times.
No Fig wasp comes out of this alive, there are no happy endings.Lady wasps are held captive until they are fertilised. Gentlemen wasps die building an escape route that they will never use.
My love of figs as subjects for painting and eating figs seems cruelly nonchalant compared to the eternal circle of tragedy experienced by the fig wasps.Even the discovery of a new-to-me word seems pretty trivial with this tale of brief, tragic life and certain unpleasant death. From start to finish this has the feel of an epic drama.
Foundress, though, the word does sound rather fabulous. I sense it will never be the plot for a film or book
Six figs on my favourite plate.
P.S this is a trial blog, using new software
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