Phrag. longifolium being naturally pollinated

[eteson]

I have a plant of Phrag. longifolium outside, in my backyard and it usually develops capsules... I was thinking it could be a case of self pollination... but last week I found a small bee or fly (I am not sure) pollinating it.
here is the video. It is a little out of focus because of the hurry...

http://youtu.be/BBPNEHuPALY

....and a picture of small plants of longifolium growing naturally from seed in one pot located close to this plant.

Eliseo

 

[SlipperKing]

Cool. 7 or 8 plantets?

 

[NYEric]

Cool. Thanks for sharing.

 

[eggshells]

Very cool, thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[eaborne]

Amazing!

 

[NYEric]

Phrag porn! :evil:

 

[nikv]

Cool!

 

[TyroneGenade]

And they germinating slipper seed and rearing slipper seedlings is difficult...

Congrats on the young'ins. Cool video.

 

[Justin]

wow! love it!

 

[SlipperFan]

Must be the right fungus in that pot. Congrats! What fun!

 

[biothanasis]

Wonderful!!!!

 

[Rick]

Looks like only a single pair of wings, and stubby antennae, so not a wasp/bee but some type of hover fly.

Did it actually get pollen on its back?

Very cool:clap:

 

[abax]

Very interesting. The twisty petals seem to have confused the fly a bit.

 

[eteson]

Looks like only a single pair of wings, and stubby antennae, so not a wasp/bee but some type of hover fly.

Did it actually get pollen on its back?

Very cool:clap:

Hi Rick, thanks for the comment, I do not know anything about insects.

I could not see pollen attached to the fly but probably it was a little bit "impregnated".
This plant usually develops 8 to 10 seed-pods each flowering season... so this process must be more common than I would have expected!...

 

[Drorchid]

I agree with Rick, it is some kind of syrphid fly. These kind of flies mimic bees and wasps in their appearance. It looks like it was trying to lay some eggs on the longifolium petals (the way the abdomen keeps going down to the petal), so the longifolium was using it to pollinate its flower, while the fly is using the orchid as a host for its eggs! Pretty interesting. Thanks for sharing! And cool too about the seedling longifolium's that germinated!

Here you can see a close-up of a Syrphid Fly laying eggs..
http://bugphoto.net/2013/02/12/laying-an-egg/syrphid_laying_egg_4138_bl11/

Robert

 

[eteson]

Hi Robert
You are totally right!
I've revised the pictures and BINGO! The fly eggs can be clearly seen.

Do you know what the larvae eat? I can not see signals of damage in the plant.

Thanks a lot!

 

[tomkalina]

Fascinating.....

 

[NYEric]

Flesh!

 

[Rick]

The larvae eat aphids Eteson. Sometimes the adults eat flower pollen.

It's been postulated that the staminode of many slippers either looks like a fuzzy aphid colony, or a single honeydew spot from a feeding aphid. So generally only the female hover flies end up doing the pollinating.

The long petals on some phrags and paphs have always been speculated as to purpose. This is the first time I've actually seen them used as as egg laying location for the hover flies. For paph rothschildianum and phillipinnense, they have found fly eggs on the staminode but not mentioned on the petals.

Watching the fly crawl out and lay eggs makes me wonder if the long petals encourage more lengthy stays of potential pollinating female flies.

 

[Rick]

That picture is so clear, we should get an entomologist to identify it.:wink:

I remember Poozcard showing a pick of a similar dark looking fly from a Paph. exul from Krabi.

But that is Malaysian and yours is South America.