Schiestl explained that male bees are attracted to novelty, which helps to avoid inbreeding, so imperfect mimicry by the orchid benefits the flower more than if it were to exactly copy the smell of a female bee. He said his own prior research shows "that the mimicking of females (by orchids) comes from pre-adaptations that are evolutionarily older than the actual female mimicry." For that earlier work, he and his colleagues found that the orchid was already making chemicals similar to those produced by female bees before the insect seduction took place, so the flower was in a good position to take advantage of the situation. Santiago Ramirez, a researcher in Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, recently determined all orchids arose between 76 to 84 million years ago, when dinosaurs were still roaming the planet. The evidence discovered by Ramirez and his team consisted of the remains of an ancient orchid pollen-bearing bee, suggesting that orchid and bee sex games might literally be almost as old as the proverbial birds and the bees. Scientific interest in the orchid/bee relationship is, by default, much more recent, but goes back many decades. "Since the time of Darwin, evolutionary biologists have been fascinated with orchids' spectacular adaptations for insect pollination," Ramirez said, adding that he's particularly interested in Vanilla orchids, as the fragrant and tasty genus Vanilla represents one of the oldest known groups within the orchid plant family. In future, Schiestl hopes additional research will be conducted on mimicry in animal species, as well as plants, to determine if other creatures are as successful at deception and seduction as the Ophrys orchids are.
Jennifer Viegas' blog: Born Animal How Stuff Works: How Bees Work |
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