2025 Organisms and PopulationsMutualism (Co-evolution of Fig and Wasp) Easy Question 9 of 90 in Organisms and Populations

Given below are two statements:
Statement I: Fig fruit is a non-vegetarian fruit as it has enclosed fig wasps in it.
Statement II: Fig wasp and fig tree exhibit mutual relationship as fig wasp completes its life cycle in fig fruit and fig fruit gets pollinated by fig wasp.
In the light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:

A Both statement I and statement II are correct
B Both statement I and statement II are incorrect
C Statement I is correct but statement II is incorrect
D Statement I is incorrect but statement II is correct

The answer is D.

Solution

Statement I is scientifically false; Statement II correctly describes obligate mutualism between fig and wasp.

Statement I is scientifically incorrect because a plant fruit cannot be classified as non-vegetarian simply due to symbiotic internal pollination. Statement II is correct: fig trees and partner fig wasps exhibit an obligate one-to-one mutualism where the wasp pollinates the inflorescence and uses developing seeds/ovaries as oviposition sites.

Concept Mutualism

Organisms and Populations in past papers

90 questions from this chapter have appeared across 25 exam years.