Fig wasps play huge role in production of aiyu jelly: MOA

Taipei, Aug. 9 (CNA) Fig wasps play a crucial and unique role in Ficus awkeotsang, a type of creeping fig that produces the fruit used to make aiyu jelly, a popular Taiwanese dessert, according to the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA).

This plant is native to Taiwan's mountainous areas, but since 2017, the MOA has been promoting its cultivation in low-lying areas, attracting a growing number of farmers.

The Taipei branch of the Agency of Rural Development and Soil and Water Conservation, which is under the MOA, recently launched a series of activities promoting the Taiwanese delicacy.

During those events, it also highlighted the fig wasp as a key contributor to the production of aiyu, as they are the only insects capable of pollinating the flowers inside the fig's fruit.

Figs and fig wasps have formed a unique symbiotic relationship that has evolved over 60 million years - a rare phenomenon in biological evolution, it said, noting that there are about 750 species of fig plants worldwide, with aiyu being one of them.

The fig wasp is around 0.2 to 0.3 centimeters in length and spends almost its entire life inside the aiyu fruit. Its whole existence, from birth to death, is closely intertwined with the aiyu fig, the agency explained.

The fig wasp possesses a special skill, in that it can burrow into the fruit and lay eggs, it said.

By the time the fruit ripens, the wingless male wasps mature first and mate with the females inside that have yet to hatch and then die.

Later, the mature winged female wasps, laden with Aiyu pollen and fertilized eggs, exit through the opening in the fig's fruit to find a new one. If she flies into a male fig, she will burrow inside to lay eggs and produce the next generation of fig wasps.

But for a female fruit, the female wasp will pollinate it in the process, allowing it to produce seeds used to make Aiyu jelly, the agency added.