Ground flower bee (Andrena), flying on the grasslands of Southern Europe is different from the usual bees we know. Although they also like to shuttle back and forth between flowers and collect pollen, they lack a group lifestyle. In addition, their nests are different from other bees in that they are built on sandy soil.
The beginning of the story comes from two ground bees who met and fell in love on the grass. After the mating ceremony, the female bees find a good nest in the sandy soil. After digging, they mix pollen, nectar, and saliva with the soil and knead them into a ball, and lay an egg in it. This egg quietly developed into a larva in the soil, and finally formed a pupae, until the winter was over, and the warm climate awakened the ground flower bee in the pupae. After a commotion, this newborn ground flower bee bit through its pupa shell, and constantly drilled into the hole of the nest, seeming to want to quickly witness this bright world. After drilling out of the hole, in addition to looking for pollen and nectar, it is more important that it wants to find the other half of its life on the grass like its parents. The words were so bumpy.
The first love of the ground flower bee
This unworldly male flower bee flies low on the grass, and the pheromone scent that is exclusive to the female bee seems to be floating in the distance, so the male flower bee does not hesitate to follow the scent clues Pursue forward. As the distance gets closer, the irritating smell gets stronger. The male flower bee frantically looked for the female bee in the air. At this time, from the corner of his eye, he saw an extremely sexy female bee’s abdomen. The touch of fluffy makes it even more convinced that this is its true destiny.
When preparing for the mating ceremony, something strange happened. The mating organ on the abdomen of the male flower bee can never find the mating organ of the other half. It has repeatedly been unable to combine with the other half, and it began to be restless, and its abdomen and head kept moving on the other half of the suspected female bee.
At this moment, the male flower bee raised his head, not knowing what he touched.A bright yellow substance adheres impartially between its two antennae. doubt? anger? Frustrated? The male flower bee, who didn’t know what happened, flew away from its first love, and also left the alluring trap set by the bee orchid.
Bee orchids distributed in Southern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East (Ophrys) Plants that grow on dry grasslands. The thumb-sized flowers are small and exquisite. Observing carefully, the lips are shaped like the abdomen of a female flower bee. Not only the appearance is similar, but also the special patches and color lines on the lips, and even the dense villi on the upper head are simulated very vividly.
In addition, through odor analysis and research, scientists found that the odor emitted by the bee orchid is very similar to the chemical composition of the female ground flower bee pheromone. Because of this, the male flower bee lost himself in this copycat smell, and was guided to the bee orchid’s lips step by step. Under the dual sensory stimulation of vision and touch, the male flower bee will mate with the lips of the bee orchid without suspecting him. This is the very classic pseudocopulation phenomenon in reproductive biology (Pseudocopulation).
The bee orchid thoroughly deceives the male flower bee through the simulation of smell, vision, and touch. It accidentally touches the medicine cap on the stamen during the false mating behavior, so the bright yellow pollen sticks directly to it. The head is in the center. The drone, who didn’t know the situation, had to leave dejectedly with the pollen block, and the bee orchid also achieved the first stage of success.
Bee orchid’s superb deception
Although the drones who left their first love are a little frustrated, because they have not yet fulfilled their important mission of breeding offspring, they still do not give up to find the next suitable mate in the grassland. Fly flying, the alluring smell came again, and the familiar abdomen appeared in front of her eyes again.
The drone said to himself: “Try again!” When it was lying on the abdomen of the female bee and preparing to mate, the fact might break its heart because it fell into the trap of the bee orchid again. It flicks on the lips of a simulated female bee. During the process, the pollen lump previously attached to the head is evenly squeezed onto the stigma at the base of the stamen. The second stage of the bee orchid is successfully completed and the pollination is completed. . Due to the delay in obtaining satisfaction on the bee orchid’s lips, the male flower bee has to constantly look for new targets, and therefore becomes the best messenger and pollinator of the bee orchid.
However, just like a child herding sheep, if the bee orchid deceives the ground flower bee too many times, it will also make the male ground flower bee no longer believe it, and therefore reluctant to try. . Therefore, the density of bee orchid blossoms and the number of deceptions strike a balance between mutual needs.
Someone may ask: Where is the real female flower bee? The answers given by evolution are always amazing.
If the bee orchid and the genuine female ground flower bee are placed in front of the male bee at the same time, the genuine female ground flower bee certainly has an advantage, which will greatly reduce the reproductive success rate of the bee orchid. Therefore, under the long-term evolutionary adaptation of the bee orchid, the flowering period is mostly concentrated within one month before the female ground flower bee burrows out of the soil in large quantities, while the unworldly male ground flower bee has to constantly search between the lips of the bee orchid. , Tentatively, but didn’t know that his true destiny is still in the soil and has not yet woken up.
By the time it finally understood, the bee orchid had already produced one after another full fruit, bred countless offspring, and continued this breathtaking trick of deception.
This article is excerpted from “10 Temptations of Orchid: Perspective on the Sexual Attraction and Evolution of Orchid”, published by Yuanliu.
