[Pollinator] Pollination by Male Ichneumon wasp

[Peter Bernhardt]

Two weeks ago I was looking for bees on bushes at Barren Grounds Wildlife
Refuge (new South Wales) but wandered into a short, open grassland and
found two species of tongue orchids in bloom.  This must have disturbed a
male wasp trying to mate with the orchid, Cryptostylis subulata.  I caught
it as it flew off from the flower, euthanized it, pinned it and Ren took
some photos of it today with his expensive camera set up.  The specimen
will be deposited in the Australian Museum.  Unfortunately, it is not
carrying the orchid's pollen sacs on the tip of its abdomen as it should.
I also include a  shot of C. sublata taken with my iPhone, by the way.
Some of you have seen the orchid photo sent at least a week ago.

Note that the orchid has a narrow, incurring lip petal.  It is supposed to
resemble a female ichneumon.  The male wasp has to back into the flower
between the curls.  It parks its genitals under the sexual organ (column)
of the orchid.  After the wasp ejaculates he extricates  his abdomen and
flies off with the pollen sacs on the tip of his butt.

The system was first discovered and interpreted by a school teacher in
Victoria, Australia, Edith Coleman back in the 1920's.  She corresponded
with a lot of famous orchid scientists in her day including Prof. Oakes
Ames at Harvard but here is an odd fact.  There are at least 5 species in
the genus Cryptostylis and Ms. Coleman studied pollination in most of
them.  Despite obvious differences in the size, sculpturing and contour of
the lip petal ALL are pollinated by the same wasp species.

Peter
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