Comments on: Sex Pranks of the Orchid World http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/11/23/sex-pranks-of-the-orchid-world/ A blog about life, past and future. Written by DISCOVER contributing editor and columnist Carl Zimmer. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:00:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Gal Haspel http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/11/23/sex-pranks-of-the-orchid-world/comment-page-1/#comment-27195 Gal Haspel Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:41:26 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/?p=2040#comment-27195 The dupe wasp! Ha! The dupe wasp! Ha!

]]> By: Gal Haspel http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/11/23/sex-pranks-of-the-orchid-world/comment-page-1/#comment-27194 Gal Haspel Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:32:10 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/?p=2040#comment-27194 @Oroboros Going on a limb, not reading the article you sited (how scholarly of me :) ), I would just add that in most species of parasitoid wasps I can think of, females are the only ones to hunt a living prey (I am sure some real entomologist will swing by and let us know). So, still targeting half of the clients but it's the other half. @Oroboros
Going on a limb, not reading the article you sited (how scholarly of me :) ), I would just add that in most species of parasitoid wasps I can think of, females are the only ones to hunt a living prey (I am sure some real entomologist will swing by and let us know). So, still targeting half of the clients but it’s the other half.

]]> By: Oroboros http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/11/23/sex-pranks-of-the-orchid-world/comment-page-1/#comment-27182 Oroboros Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:32:35 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/?p=2040#comment-27182 I've been following another blog about evolution that mentioned this behavior: <a HREF="http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/orchids-mimic-alarm-pheromones-of-bees-to-attract-wasps/" rel="nofollow">Orchids mimic alarm pheromones of bees to attract wasps</A>. The two interesting points I took away from that other blog are: 1) The idea of wasps as flying penises. 2) The idea that you're better mimicking an alarm pheromone of a prey species than a sex pheromone because you double the number of potential pollinators. I’ve been following another blog about evolution that mentioned this behavior: Orchids mimic alarm pheromones of bees to attract wasps.

The two interesting points I took away from that other blog are:

1) The idea of wasps as flying penises.

2) The idea that you’re better mimicking an alarm pheromone of a prey species than a sex pheromone because you double the number of potential pollinators.

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