Trees retaliate when fig wasps don't service them

Figs and fig wasps help each other out: Fig wasps lay their eggs inside the fruit where the wasp larvae can safely develop, and in return, the wasps pollinate the figs.
But what happens when a wasp lays its eggs but fails to pollinate the fig?
The trees get even by dropping those figs to the ground, killing the baby wasps inside, reports a Cornell and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (published online Jan. 13).
The findings suggest that when one species in a mutually beneficial relationship fails to hold up its end of the bargain, sanctions may be a necessary part of maintaining the relationship.
A female fig wasp (Tetrapus americanus) is about to enter a flowering fig (Ficus maxima).


Once inside, the fig wasp will pollinate and lay her eggs in the flowers that line the inside of the fig.