African Arthropods/Arthropods on ''Ficus burkei''

The genus Ficus includes the cultivated Ficus carica which is native to the Mediterranean basin. The genus, however, includes more than 750 species of fig tree worldwide, including 25 species native to South Africa, and 112 species in the Afrotropics. Ficus species are fairly well known for their remarkable interaction with fig wasps, but there are a host of other animals that interact with these trees (such as the many species of birds that eat the fruit and the syconium that encloses the flowers and fruit.

This page explores the diversity of arthropods that have been found associated with the common wild fig (Ficus burkei). This species is found in southern and eastern Africa, from South Africa to southern Kenya and Uganda.

In 1981, a study of the Ficus burkei fig wasps (collected in Zimbabwe) was published. The figs studied were then named Ficus thonningii, but in southern and eastern Africa, trees of this taxon have been named Ficus burkei since 2003.

Parasitic wasps of the Proctotrupomorpha

Agaonidae (Fig wasps)

• 
  Elisabethiella stueckenbergi, the pollinator of Ficus burkei

Epichrysomallidae (Fig wasps)

• 
  Lachaisea brevimucro

Eurytomidae (Fig wasps)

• 
  Sycophila sp.
• 
  Sycophila sp.

Pteromalidae (Fig wasps)

• 
  Female Otitesella tsamvi ovipositing into a syconium of Ficus burkei
• 
  Male Otitesella tsamvi on a syconium of Ficus burkei
• 
  Philotrypesis parca
• 
  Male Seres barbarus
• 
  Female Seres barbarus attempting to enter a Ficus burkei syconium
• 
  Sycoscapter cornutus ovipositing into a syconium of Ficus burkei
• 
  Watshamiella alata ovipositing into a syconium of Ficus burkei

Encyrtidae

• 
  Homalotylus sp.
• 
  Encyrtid wasp, possibly Psyllaephagus sp.

Eulophidae

• 
  Subfamily Tetrastichinae
• 
  Subfamily Entedoninae

Eupelmidae

• 
  Brasema sp.
• 
  Brasema sp.

Chalcididae

• 
  Brachymeria sp.

Parasitic wasps of the Ichneumonoidea

Braconidae

• 
  A braconid wasp (Brachistinae) ovipositing into a Ficus burkei syconium

Stinging wasps (Aculeata)

Bethylidae

• 
  Subfamily Bethylinae

Pemphredonidae

• 
  Polemistus braunsii collecting resin (dried Ficus latex)
• 
  Polemistus braunsii collecting resin (dried Ficus latex)

Pompilidae

• 
  Spider-hunting wasp (probably Auplopus sp.)
• 
  Spider-hunting wasp (probably Auplopus sp.)

Ants

Formicidae

• 
  An ant, (Lepisiota sp.) carrying a fig wasp (Elisabethiella stueckenbergi)
• 
  An ant, (Lepisiota sp.) carrying a fig wasp (Lachaisea sp.)
• 
  An ant, (Lepisiota sp.) harvesting honeydew from aphids (Greenidea sp.)

Bees

Apidae

• 
  Honey Bee (Apis mellifera ssp. scutellata) collecting dried latex from a damaged stem of Ficus burkei. This resin is used as propolis.

Halictidae

• 
  Lasioglossum sp.

Beetles

• 
  Harmonia axyridis
• 
  Microfreudea cyclica
• 
  Sciobius pullus

True Bugs, Hoppers, Aphids, and Psylloids (Order Hemiptera)

• 
  A homotomid psylloid; Pseudoeriopsylla sp.
• 
  Mating pair of Uhlunga typica with eggs.
• 
  Aphids; Greenidea sp.
• 
  Adult leaf-rolling psylloids, Pauropsylla sp. (Triozidae) on a Ficus burkei leaf.
• 
  An emerging leaf-rolling psylloid, Pauropsylla sp. (Triozidae) with a recently emerged adult

Moths and butterflies

• 
  Myrina silenus (Common fig tree blue)
• 
  Myrina dermaptera (Caterpillar of the lesser fig tree blue)
• 
  Naroma varipes mating pair

Mantisflies

• 
  A mantisfly, Afromantispa sp.
• 
  A mantisfly, Afromantispa sp.
• 
  A mantisfly, Afromantispa sp.

Green lacewings

• 
  Green lacewing larva
• 
  Green lacewing larva
• 
  Green lacewing egg

Thrips

• 
  Tube-tailed thrips (Family Phlaeothripidae)

Spiders

• 
  Gephyrota glauca
• 
  Female Vicirionessa mustela