Fig biology

Publications

Borges, R.M. (2021).
Interactions between figs and gall-inducing fig wasps: adaptations, constraints and unanswered questions.
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 9:685542.

Venkateshwaran, V. & Borges, R.M. (2021).
Staying in the club: Exploring criteria governing metacommunity membership for obligate symbionts under host–symbiont feedback.
Journal of Theoretical Biology. 510:110512.

Gupta, S., Kumble, A.L.K., Dey, K., Bessière, J.-M., Borges, R. M. (2021).
The scent of life: phoretic nematodes use wasp volatiles and carbon dioxide to choose functional vehicles for dispersal.
Journal of Chemical Ecology 47:139–152.

Gupta, S., & Borges, R. M. (2020).
Hopping on: Conspecific traveller density within a vehicle regulates parasitic hitchhiking between ephemeral microcosms.
Journal of Animal Ecology.

Gupta, S., Borges, R.M. (2019).
Density‐dependent fitness effects stabilize parasitic hitchhiking within a mutualism.
Functional Ecology 33:2304–2315.

Venkateswaran, V., Kumble, A.L., Borges, R.M. (2018).
Resource dispersion influences dispersal evolution of highly insulated insect communities.
Biology Letters 14:20180111.

Borges, R.M. (2018).
The galling truth: limited knowledge of gall-associated volatiles in multitrophic interactions.
Frontiers in Plant Science 9:1130.

Borges, R. M., Compton, S. G., Kjellberg, F. (2018).
Fifty years later, figs and their associated communities.
Acta Oecologica, 90:1–3.

Yadav, P., Borges, R.M. (2018).
Why resource history matters: age and oviposition history affect oviposition behaviour in exploiters of a mutualism.
Ecological Entomology.

Yadav, P., Desireddy, S., Kasinathan, S., Bessière, J.-M., Borges, R.M. (2018).
History matters: oviposition resource acceptance in an exploiter of a nursery pollination mutualism.
Journal of Chemical Ecology 44:18–28.

Krishnan, A., Borges, R.M. (2018).
A fig tree in a concrete jungle: fine-scale population genetic structure of the cluster fig Ficus racemosa in an urban environment.
Urban Ecosystems 21:171–181.

Venkateswaran, V., Shrivastava, A., Kumble, A.L., Borges, R.M. (2017).
Life-history strategy, resource dispersion and phylogenetic associations shape dispersal of a fig wasp community.
Movement Ecology 5:25.

Yadav, P., Borges, R.M. (2017).
The insect ovipositor as a volatile sensor within a closed microcosm.
Journal of Experimental Biology 220:1554–1557 [This paper is featured in: Inside Journal of Experimental Biology].

Yadav, P., Borges, R.M. (2017).
Host–parastioid development and survival strategies in a non-pollinating fig wasp community.
Acta Oecologica.

Borges, R.M. (2016).
On the air: broadcasting and reception of volatile messages in brood-site pollination mutualisms.
Pages 227–255 In Deciphering Chemical Language of Plant Communication (James D Blande, Robert Glinwood, Editors), Springer International Publishing.

Bain, A., Borges, R.M., Chevallier, M.H., Vignes, H., Kobmoo, N., Peng, Y.Q., Cruaud, A., Rasplus, J.Y., Kjellberg, F. and Hossaert-Mckey, M. (2016).
Geographic structuring into vicariant species-pairs in a wide-ranging, high- dispersal plant–insect mutualism: the case of Ficus racemosa and its pollinating wasps.
Evolutionary Ecology 30:663–684.

Hossaert-McKey, M., Proffit, M., Soler, C.C.L., Chen, C., Bessière, J.-M., Schatz, B., Borges, R.M. (2016).
How to be a dioecious fig: Chemical mimicry between sexes matters only when both sexes flower synchronously.
Nature Scientific Reports 6:21236.

Krishnan, A., Ghara, M., Kasinathan, S., Pramanik, G. K., Revadi, S., Borges, R. M. (2015).
Plant reproductive traits mediate tritrophic feedback effects within an obligate brood-site pollination mutualism.
Oecologia 179:797–809.

Ranganathan, Y., Bessiere, J. M., Borges, R. M. (2015).
A coat of many scents: cuticular hydrocarbons in multitrophic interactions of fig wasps with ants.
Acta Oecologica, 67:24–33.

Borges, R. M. (2015).
How to be a fig wasp parasite on the fig–fig wasp mutualism.
Current Opinion in Insect Science 8:34–40.

Krishnan, A., Pramanik, G. K., Revadi, S. V., Venkateswaran, V., Borges, R.M. (2014).
High temperatures result in smaller nurseries which lower reproduction of pollinators and parasites in a brood site pollination mutualism.
PLOS ONE 9: e115118.

Krishnan, A., Borges, R.M. (2014).
Parasites exert conflicting selection pressures to affect reproductive asynchrony of their host plant in an obligate pollination mutualism.
Journal of Ecology 102:1329–1340.

Ghara, M., Ranganathan, Y., Krishnan, A., Gowda, V., Borges R.M. (2014).
Divvying up an incubator: How parasitic and mutualistic fig wasps use space within their nursery microcosm.
Arthropod-Plant Interactions 8:191–203.

Borges, R.M., Kjellberg, F. (2014).
New insights from the fig–fig wasp model interaction system.
Acta Oecologica 57:3–4.

Krishnan, A., Joshi, K.A., Abraham, A., Ayyub, S., Lahiry, M., Mukherjee, R., Javadekar, S.M., Narayan, V., Borges, R.M. (2013).
Finding hidden females in a crowd: Mate recognition in fig wasps.
Acta Oecologica 57:80–87.

Borges, R.M., Bessière, J-M, Ranganathan, Y. (2013).
Diel variation in fig volatiles across syconium development: making sense of scents.
Journal of Chemical Ecology 39:630–642.

Ghara, M., Kundanati, L., Borges, R.M. (2011).
Nature’s Swiss army knives: ovipositor structure mirrors ecology in a multitrophic fig wasp community.
PLOS One 6:e23642.

Borges, R.M., Ranganathan, Y., Krishnan, A., Ghara, M., Pramanik, G. (2011).
When should fig fruit produce volatiles? Pattern in a ripening process.
Acta Oecologica 37:611–618.

Ranganathan, Y., Borges, R.M. (2011).
To transform or not to transform: that is the dilemma in the statistical analysis of plant volatiles.
Plant Signaling & Behaviour 6:113–116 [Invited paper].

Dev, S. A., Kjellberg, F., Hossaert-McKey, M., Borges, R.M. (2010).
Fine- scale population genetic structure of two dioecious keystone species Ficus hispida and Ficus exasperata.
Biotropica 43:309–316.

Ranganathan, Y., Ghara, M., Borges, R.M. (2010).
Temporal association in fig–wasp–ant interactions: diel and phenological patterns.
Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 137:50–61.

Krishnan, A., Muralidharan, S., Sharma, L., Borges, R.M. (2010).
A hitchhiker’s guide to a crowded syconium: how do fig nematodes find the right ride?
Functional Ecology 24:741–749.

Ghara, M., Borges, R.M. (2010).
Comparative life-history traits in a fig wasp community: implications for community structure.
Ecological Entomology 35:139–148.

Ranganathan, Y., Borges, R.M. (2010).
Reducing the babel in plant volatile communication: Using the forest to see the trees.
Plant Biology 12:735–742.

Ranganathan, Y., Borges, R.M. (2009).
Predatory and trophobiont-tending ants respond differently to fig and fig wasp volatiles.
Animal Behaviour 77:1539–1545.

Borges, R.M., Bessière, J-M., Hossaert-McKey, M. (2008).
The chemical ecology of seed dispersal in monoecious and dioecious figs.
Functional Ecology 22:484–493.

Proffit, M., Schatz, B., Borges, R.M., Hossaert-McKey, M. (2007).
Chemical mediation and resource partitioning in non-pollinating fig wasp communities.
Journal of Animal Ecology 76:296–303.

Vignes, H., Hossaert-McKey, M., Beaune, D., Fevre, D., Anstett, M.-C., Borges, R.M., Kjellberg, F., Chevallier, M.H. (2006).
Development and characterization of microsatellite markers for a monoecious Ficus species, Ficus insipida, and cross-species amplification among different sections of Ficus.
Molecular Ecology Notes 6:792–795.

Schatz, B., Proffit, M., Rakhi, B.V, Borges, R.M., Hossaert-McKey, M. (2006).
Complex interactions on fig trees: ants capturing parasitic wasps as possible indirect mutualists of the fig/fig wasp interaction.
Oikos 113:344–352.

Borges, R.M. (1993).
Figs and Malabar Giant Squirrels in two tropical forests in India.
Biotropica 25:183–190.