A whole new type of flower porn

Okay, so males in search of sex are not always that discriminating. We’ve seen that males that mate with females that will kill and eat them. We’ve seen males that will court other males. But not recognizing that something doesn’t even belong to your own kingdom is close to the record, and we saw that with some male insects that copulate with flowers.^*

Previously, only orchids were known to trick insects into copulating with them. It’s thought that this is a way to enhance pollination. Now, a new tease has been found.

As you can see, Gorteria diffusa has a lot of variation in its flowers. It turns out that male flies are very attracted to some forms of these flowers, to the point that they will try to mate with them. And yes, Ellis and Johnson have the blackmail tapes.

While wasps only occasionally try to mate with orchids – but flies will try to mate with some forms of these daisies up to 75% of the time. It’s not clear yet if the males learn to avoid these flowers. And, unlike the orchid case, the authors haven’t found any evidence of the male flies releasing ejaculate, so the flies are mainly wasting time, not genetic material.

Another difference between the orchid story and this species is that the daisies actually give food rewards. So within this one flower species there is a wide range of strategies, ranging from honest (“I’ll give you food if you’ll do me a solid”) to deceptive (“Actually, you won’t get offspring from this”). This promises to allow for lots of fascinating experiments.

Reference

Ellis A, & Johnson S (2010). Floral mimicry enhances pollen export: The evolution of pollination by sexual deceit outside of the Orchidaceae. The American Naturalist. DOI: 10.1086/656487

Flower photo by buildingadesert on Flickr. Used under a Creative Commons license.

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Tricking wasps with flower porn

^* Still not the record holder for males with the lowest standards, though.