Book Reviews

Figs are fascinating in many respects. The growth form of some species has been described as tree splitters or stranglers. Some individuals such as the giant banyans of the Calcutta Botanical Gardens and of Madras are well-known tourist attractions. But figs are best known to botanists for the close coevolution with their pollinators, the fig wasps, and their use as an example in many botanical text books. The symbiosis of figs and fig wasps shows many specializations and coadaptations. In the fig there are the fruit-like inflorescences (fig or syconium) closed by ostiolar bracts, short- and long-styled female flowers, synstigmas, and the extended interfloral phase between female and male flowering within one syconium; in the fig wasps, the tragic life of the wingless and often blind males whose active life is restricted to a few hours, during which they bite an opening in the wall of the fruit gall containing a female, copulate with her and tunnel through the wall of the receptacle so she can leave in search of a new fig tree. African Fig Trees and Fig Wasps tells us about these and many other aspects of figs, fig wasps and their symbiosis. The book is the result of longstanding cooperation between a botanist and an entomologist, who devoted appreciable parts of their careers to the evolution and taxonomy of the figs and fig wasps, respectively. The book has chapters on the biology of figs and fig wasps, on the African figs, on the African fig wasps, and on fig wasps acting as pollinators. The chapter on Ficus provides keys to the sections and species and has detailed descriptions of the 105 African species, with data on geographical distribution and habitat. In the chapter on the pollinators, the females and males of 81 species of fig wasps are described with records of their specific host figs and keys for the genera and species. References are given after each chapter and in a separate bibliography on figs and fig insects of Africa, The book is well-illustrated with a good choice of beautiful drawings and SEM photographs.