How can people not believe in basic evolution when we have created self-pollinating figs
Comment on spoopy figs
ViatorOmnium@piefed.social 2 days ago
Most commercially and home grown produced figs are self-pollinating, only a few wild fig species require wasps to pollinate them. So most people will only ever see wasp-free figs.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
Though i once saw a bug crawl out of a ripe fig.
wibble@reddthat.com 2 days ago
Better than finding half a bug in the fig after your first mouthful
Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
It was a hell of a surprise when I cut open a peach and the pit was smaller and softer than usual and it split in two in my hands and a little slightly drowsy looking winged ant crawled out of one of the halves and started walking around on the counter. Little guy must have had such a long journey. I don’t know how the hell they got INSIDE the pit.
flora_explora@beehaw.org 2 days ago
I don’t think that’s true. Apparently even Aristotle has spoken about fig wasps (without really understanding what they are or do of course). And it seems like all fig trees are dependent on this kind of pollination.
ranzispa@mander.xyz 1 day ago
I used to have some fig trees, I’d always have to be careful around them as they’d be full of wasps.
flora_explora@beehaw.org 23 hours ago
Oh, you’re thinking of wasps like yellowjackets. “Fig wasp” uses the taxonomic term “wasp”. There are hundreds of thousands of parasitic wasp species out there that most people aren’t familiar with. Fig wasps are gall wasps and are really tiny! Like so small you can hardly see them by the naked eye. It is fascinating how so small beings can fly distances of many kilometers when they are only a millimeter in size.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Oh thank god.
I know commercial farming is usually terrible, but this bit just seems like a win
polydactyl@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Mostly it’s commercial animal farming that is heinously immoral. The big problems with commercial crop farming is the change to landscape (and therefore ecosystem) and reduction of native species and diversity due to farming of one specific species. These can be mitigated (if humans cared), obviously the animal farming problems too, but the animal cruelty is way more evil, and harder to fix institutionally.
I’m pretty sure about these things, but I am not an expert on these specific matters. Never trust some rando as a source. Always do your own research. And even then be careful…… we live in some weird ass times