Episode Details

In 2023, a US grocer recalled over 10,000 cases of broccoli cheddar soup over concerns they contained too much of an unintended ingredient. That ingredient? Bugs. We know insects regularly come into contact with our food— but how many are you actually eating? And is it okay? Let’s start with an extreme example: figs and their conspicuously close bond with certain bugs.2023 年，一家美国杂货店召回了 10,000 多箱西兰花切达干酪汤，原因是担心其中含有过多的非预期成分。那个成分？虫子。我们知道昆虫经常接触我们的食物，但您实际上吃了多少昆虫？可以吗？让我们从一个极端的例子开始：无花果及其与某些昆虫的密切联系。

Around 80 million years ago, wasps started pollinating figs. And today, each of the approximately 750 fig tree species depends on at least one unique species of tiny wasps. Pollinator-plant relationships can get hyper-specific. And figs guard their flowers especially tight for fig wasps. Technically, a fig isn't a fruit, but a fleshy bundle derived from stem tissues that holds hundreds of internal flowers— like a hidden garden.大约八千万年前，黄蜂开始为无花果授粉。如今，大约 750 种无花果树中的每一种都依赖于至少一种独特的小黄蜂。传粉者与植物的关系可以变得高度特定。无花果对无花果黄蜂的保护特别严密。从技术上讲，无花果不是水果，而是由茎组织衍生的肉质束，内部有数百朵花，就像一个隐藏的花园。

Humans typically harvest one species: the common fig. Its breeding system, called gynodioecy, is seen in less than 1% of flowering plants. It works with some common fig trees having seed-producing female parts, while others, called caprifigs, have both female seed-producing and male pollen-producing parts. Wasps get involved when a female fig wasp full of eggs follows odor cues to a common fig tree and thrusts herself into the minuscule hole at a developing fig’s base. From there, depending on whether it's a caprifig or a female fig, things go one of two ways, the outcome being either more wasps or more figs.人类通常收获一种物种：无花果。它的繁殖系统被称为雌花异株，只见于不到 1% 的开花植物。它适用于一些具有产生种子的雌性部分的常见无花果树，而其他称为无花果的无花果树，既有雌性产生种子的部分，也有雄性产生花粉的部分。当一只充满卵的雌性无花果黄蜂跟随气味线索来到一棵普通无花果树并将自己插入正在发育的无花果基部的小洞时，黄蜂就会介入。从那里开始，根据它是无花果还是雌性无花果，事情会以两种方式之一进行，结果要么是更多的黄蜂，要么是更多的无花果。

If it’s a caprifig, the wasp deposits her eggs into the flowers’ ovaries, then dies. Instead of developing seeds, those flower ovaries turn into galls that nurture the wasp’s developing offspring. Wingless and blind, the males hatch first, open the remaining galls, and fertilize the developing females— yes, oftentimes their sisters, unless another wasp laid eggs here. Next, the males dig exit pathways they never use themselves because they die before leaving the fig. Finally, the already-fertilized females hatch, exit through the male-made holes, getting coated with pollen on the way, and fly off to other figs.如果是无花果，黄蜂会将卵产入花朵的子房中，然后死亡。这些花的卵巢不会发育出种子，而是变成虫瘿，滋养黄蜂正在发育的后代。无翅且盲目的雄性黄蜂首先孵化，打开剩余的虫瘿，使正在发育的雌性受精——是的，通常是它们的姐妹，除非有另一只黄蜂在这里产卵。接下来，雄性挖出他们自己从未使用过的出口通道，因为它们在离开无花果之前就死了。最后，已经受精的雌性孵化，从雄性制造的孔中出来，途中沾上花粉，飞向其他无花果。

If a wasp winds up in a female fig, however, she can’t lay her eggs because the flowers are structured differently. So, she dies without offspring— but she did pollinate the fig’s flowers, so the tree can reproduce. Female wasps don’t know which kind