This Freaky Plant Has an Incredible Trick For Luring in Flies
Plants employ a wide variety of tactics to lure pollinators, but an ornamental plant popularly known as Giant Ceropegia takes it to another level. Its flower smells like a honeybee under attack—an odor that freeloading, meal-seeking flies find absolutely irresistible.
Around four to six percent of all plants use deception to attract pollinating insects, but researchers have never seen a trick like this before. Writing in the latest edition of Current Biology, researchers from the University of Salzburg in Austria and the University of Bayreuth in Germany describe the unique strategy employed by the Giant Ceropegia, a plant with an umbrella-like flower that it uses to temporarily imprison pollinating insects.
Flies consuming the remains of a honeybee recently killed by a spider. Notice the drop of venom at the tip of the stinger.
http://gizmodo.com/this-freaky-plant-has-an-incredible-trick-for-luring-in-1787486883
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