National Geographic has a story about an orchid that has evolved to resemble a female wasp:
The orchid was recently discovered in Australia. Australia, you may recall, has more poisonous critters than pretty much anyplace else in the world, has carnivorous kangaroos, and now sex starved wasps*…
* Note my restraint, there are any number of obscene jokes and puns that I could have made about this, but instead choose to make fun of Australia (Note to Australians, I kids ’cause I loves).
Filed under: Botany, Invertebrates, Silliness |
Afarensis: Anthropology, Evolution, and Science 
And wasp-mimicking orchids is supposed to be news to whom, Darwin fans? Nice picture though. This or a similar species has featured on one or more of Attenborough’s BBC series; typically Australian, it’s a lazy sort of mechanism for the orchid, using a simple hinge so that the male wasp’s attempts to fly off with the ‘female’ flip him over on top of the pollinium. Not even spring-loaded!
Most of the carnivorous kangaroos are (sadly) extinct, and the venomousness of our fauna is greatly overrated (except for the jellyfish, the snakes and the spiders). And some of the wasps; I once copped a sting from a big spider-killer that felt exactly like being hit on the thumb with a hammer. (For ‘South Park’ fans: suppose I shouldn’t have stuck my thumb up its arse).
And don’t get me started on the Queensland Stinging Tree…