5- Love me, love me, pretend that you love me. Fool me, fool me, go on and fool me…

This is the english version of this text

vespa.jpg

Male wasp with pollinia on its back pseudocopulating with the orchi labellum.
Obtained from: anu.edu.au

For our Grand Finale I reserved what should be the greatest humiliation to the endless quest for pleasure that we males do. Plants also need to transfer their male gametes from one individual to another, aiming this Angiospermae started counting on animals like hummingbirds, bees and butterflies, the pollinators. In most of the cases there is na exchenge between pollinators and plants. Bees take some of the pollen for food, hummingbirds feed on the flower’s nectar, but in the case I am to tell today the pollinator is fooled by the plant. The orchid Chiloglottis trapeziformis has its labellum fisically modified and chemically similar to the female of its pollinator wasp Neozeleboria cryptoides. As it blooms the flower starts spreading the sweet scent of the fertile female wasp, what attracts the males from all over. Males grab the labellum of the orchid, a modified petal, and cover themselves with pollen while they think they have a pure moment of bliss with the fake-female. After that they fly away and find another flower that they imediately stick to taking it for another generous female and, while it is sexually dedicated to this new “lover”, transfers the pollen from one orchid to another.

Discussão - 1 comentário

  1. lucas disse:

    Now, THAT's sick!
    I've actually heard of people how does it with banana trees. 😀

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