The master of deception

[naoki]

We are all fascinated by the beauty of orchid flowers, but the mechanism of orchid pollination is more beautifully crafted than what you can see by our eyes.

We are familiar with the pseudo-copluation, but there is another kind of deception. Dendrobium siensis emits something similar to SOS hormones of bees. Then hornets which detect the hormone, and try to eat the bee are going to pollinate this species!

Here is a very nice blog post about this:
https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpres...ic-alarm-pheromones-of-bees-to-attract-wasps/

 

[JAB]

Fascinating! It is funny that we often think of evolution as a slow, arduous task, but in reality it is happening right before our inpatient eyes.
Thanks Naoki.