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Among the Agaonidae, the female is a normal insect, while the male is wingless and never leaves the caprifig he hatched in. The male's only tasks are to mate with the females and drill a hole in the syconium. This is the reverse of Strepsiptera and the bagworm, where the male is a normal insect and the female never leaves.

Figs have three kinds of flowers: male, short female, and long female. Female fig wasps can reach the ovaries of short female flowers with their ovipositors, but not long female flowers. Thus the short flowers grow wasps, whereas the long flowers become seeds.

Pollinating fig wasps (Agaoninae) are specific to specific figs. The common fig Ficus carica is pollinated by Blastophaga psenes.