Amorous wasps 'seduced' by orchids

Orchids that mimic women wasps May not only wasting time men they attract wasps in their dissemination of pollen - they also appeal to lose value in semen, Sydney researchers have found.

And flowers benefit twice - get help in their own reproduction, and perhaps indirectly producing more men pollinators in the process.

Some of the more exotic orchids are known to have evolved their convoluted forms to attract insects, which unwittingly collect pollen and transfer as they try to mate with flowers.

"The effect of deception on pollinators was considered negligible, but we show that pollinators May suffer significant costs," Anne Gaskett of Macquarie University in Sydney and his colleagues reported.

"The insect pollinators language Australian orchids (Cryptostylis species) ejaculate often copious and waste sperm," they wrote in a report of The American Naturalist.

It is not safe for Wasps, who suffered May over a disadvantage. "Men prefer pollinators may orchids real women, prematurely terminated a copulation with a real women to visit an orchid, or may not be able to find women among the latter false signals of orchids," wrote researchers .

"Undoubtedly, the production of semen, ejaculate, or seminal fluid is expensive for many animals. The energy demand of sperm production can lead to a reduction in body mass, a life reduced lifespan limited or sperm production, "they added.

But this arms race sexual trickery operates in more than one way of the flower. "We also show that orchid species to cause such extreme behaviour of pollinators have the highest pollination success," they added.

"How can deception persist, given the costs of pollination?"

They discovered that the wasps who attend these flowers are haplodiploid species. Like bees, ants and other species, the offspring produced by sexual unions are women, while females may also produce men asexual.

"Therefore, deprived of insects mating by deception orchid could still produce male offspring, which May or improve pollination of orchids," wrote the researchers.

Ms. Gaskett the team examined the flowers after visiting wasps and found the men not fool finally learn their lesson.

"With experience, men Lissopimpla excelsa wasps are less likely to copulate with pollination and sexually Cryptostylis orchids misleading," they wrote.