Deceptive Pollination in Ecuadorian Orchids!

This video was originally recorded in February of 2025.

In this video we check out the habitat of Phragmipedium pearcei, an orchid that is pollinated by female hoverflies that it dupes into attempting to lay eggs on its flowers, as the fly larvae eat aphids when young.

Phragmipedium pearcei tricks female hover flies (in the species Ocyptanthes antiphales) into visiting the flowers by producing spots on the inside of the flower's "pouch" that mimic aphids. This species of hover fly lays eggs in aphid colonies, and later the emerging larvae eat the aphids as they grow.

It's also quite likely that this flower produces pheromones that mimic the alert pheromones of aphids in order to help attract the hover flies - quite a few other orchid genera do this is as well, such as #Epipactis.

The hover fly flies into the "pouch" formed by the labellum petal and is temporarily trapped. When it finally escapes the flower, it is forced to exit through the top of the flower by the "moustache" structure on the staminode, where it then comes into contact with the stigma (the female part of the flower) and later the anther.

This "trap-and-release" pollination method is also used by plants such as the pipevines (genus Aristolochia), with which it seems to work pretty well.

The genus Phragmipedium is 1 of 5 genera in the orchid subfamily Cypripedioideae, known for producing two anthers instead of the standard one as well as the "slipper" or "pouch" shaped labellum (see last photo for picture of Orchid phylogeny and subfamilies).





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