high up in borneo's canopy
you'll find a fig tree living in
symbiosis with an
outlandish wasp one
who is willing to sacrifice her own life
to assure the survival
of her offspring
competing for sunlight in the dense
rainforest
the strangler fig takes advantage of
other trees
to find its way up and exploit the pole
position
in the canopy to reproduce
but for this it depends on a bizarre
creature
that you might have never even heard of
the fig
wasp this
miniscule insect is just around two
millimeters long
the wasp's life cycle is deeply
intertwined with the fig
she knows that the only way to get into
the fruit
is through a tiny hole on the bottom
she has to sacrifice her wings in order
to get through
the tight nozzle but she won't mind
as she knows that she'll never fly again
[Applause]
once inside the strangler fig shuts the
entrance to its fruit
thus the final act of the wasp's life is
to lay her eggs
in the cavity after that
she will die in there over time the
flowers and the wasp eggs develop
and the fig transforms into a mature
fruit
from the eggs however male wasps emerge
first they have no wings
as they won't need them during their
short lives
their life's purpose is limited to two
goals
only the first one is to mate with the
females
they do this by biting their way in and
inseminating the younger
still not fully developed females
[Laughter]
as soon as they've completed their first
task they tackle their second
and last job digging away
out of the fruit
but this escape route is not meant for
themselves
without wings the male wasps have no
chance of survival on the outside
their final hours are numbered
inside their sisters now emerge already
fertilized
they head directly for the exit being
brushed with
pollen on their way
with ready-made tunnels dug by the
now-dead males
the females have an easy way out so the
pollen remains glued to their bodies
their lives won't be that much longer
either they can live
for about two days only but these
two days should be enough to find
another strangler fig
ready to receive them the minuscule
wasps are in fact
top performing creatures they can fly up
to 50 kilometers above the canopy
drawn in by the scent of receptive figs
they will find a new host for their
offspring
here the game reboots the wasps find the
small opening
and enter the fruit while pollinating
the flowers
at the same time
the strangler fig and the wasp depend
entirely on each other
a bizarre partnership that has been
going on for more than
60 million years