DO POLLINATION DEFICITS EXIST IN AGROECOSYSTEMS?
The oldest recorded examples of pollination and pollination deficit in crops are for sycomore (also known as sycamore) figs, Ficus sycomorus (Amos ca. 760 B.C.) and for date palm, Phoenix dactylifera, and Smyrna figs, Ficus carica (Herodotus 485-425 B.C.). Although the sycomore fig is native to central eastern Africa and Yemen, it is also widely cultivated in Egypt and Mediterranean countries, where its pollinators (Ceratosolen arabicus: Hymenoptera: Agaonidae) are absent (Galil and Eisikowitch 1968, 1969a, b, 1974). Theophrastus (372-287 B.C.) recorded the lack of seeds in Egyptian figs, and Galil (1967) noted that there were no wasps associated with figs from ancient tombs. How the plant spread beyond the reaches of its pollinators is unknown, but its range included Egypt by at least 3000 B.C. (Galil 1967). For the unfertilized fruit to develop, it must be scraped in the manner described by Theophrastus (372-287 B.C.) and Galil (1967), often with a special knife (Henslow 1892, 1902,
