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Bee Orchid. Interspecific sexual mimicry can also occur in some plant species. The most common example of this is known as sexually deceptive pollination and is found among some orchids. [23] The orchid mimics its pollinator's females, usually hymenopterans such as wasps and bees, attracting the males to the flower. Orchid flowers mimic the sex ...
Eulaema meriana is a large-bodied bee species in the tribe Euglossini, otherwise known as the orchid bees. The species is a solitary bee and is native to tropical Central and South America. [ 1 ] The male collects fragrances from orchid flowers, which it stores in hollows in its hind legs.
For neotropical habitats, orchid bees are important in maintaining homeostasis through the pollination of various orchid flowers. With one Euglossa species pollinating near 74 different plant species belonging to 41 families, E. hyacinthina also pollinate various flowers within Costa Rica.
Pseudocopulation by an insect on a flower is a result of Pouyannian mimicry, named after the French lawyer and amateur botanist Maurice-Alexandre Pouyanne. . [1] [2] This occurs in several orchids, whose flowers mimic the female mating signals of specific pollinator insects, such as bees. [3]
The special fragrance collection organs are seen on the large hind legs of this Euglossa viridissima as it sleeps on a leaf. Male orchid bees have uniquely modified legs which are used to collect and store different volatile compounds (often esters) throughout their lives, primarily from orchids in the subtribes Stanhopeinae and Catasetinae, where all species are exclusively pollinated by ...
Orchids that attract Euglossine bees secrete scented oils, but while accessing these, the bees slip and into a water-filled bucket. To escape the bucket, the bee must crawl up a narrow tunnel, during which the plant attaches pollen sacs onto its back. The escaped bee will visit another orchid and drop the pollen, fertilising it.
Ophrys apifera, known in Europe as the bee orchid, is a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Ophrys, in the family of Orchidaceae. It serves as an example of sexually deceptive pollination and floral mimicry, a highly selective and highly evolved plant–pollinator relationship.
Euglossa is a genus of orchid bees ().Like all their close relatives, they are native to the Neotropics; an introduced population exists in Florida.They are typically bright metallic blue, green, coppery, or golden.