WAS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO???

When I read articles like this, I understand why Nature has to be female, would Father Nature have ever tricked males like this?  Or make Praying Mantis with the mating habits they have? Or some female spiders finishing their love making with a midnight snack of their partner? Or perhaps it is just the insect world's equivalent of human Mothers' yelling, " LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO ME!! YOU EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN AND I WILL KILL YOU!!!" during birth.  Mother Nature has a warped sense of humor, but you still have to love her!! --JohnOh--

TEMPTRESS ORCHIDS DO MORE THAN JUST EMBARRASS WASPS

Science News --  (Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Eric Beech)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Orchids that mimic female wasps may not only waste the time of the male wasps they lure into spreading their pollen -- they also seduce them into wasting valuable sperm, Australian researchers reported on Wednesday.

A montage of orchids are on display at the 2005 Taiwan International Orchid Exhibition. Orchids that mimic female wasps may not only waste the time of the male wasps they lure into spreading their pollen -- they also seduce them into wasting valuable sperm, Australian researchers reported on Wednesday.(Richard Chung/Reuters

And the flowers benefit twice -- getting help in their own reproduction, and perhaps indirectly producing more male pollinators in the process.

Some of the most exotic orchids are known to have evolved their convoluted shapes to attract insects, who unwittingly collect and transfer pollen as they try to mate with the flowers.

"The effect of deception on pollinators has been considered negligible, but we show that pollinators may suffer considerable costs," Anne Gaskett of Macquarie University in Sydney and colleagues reported.

"Was it good for you?"             National Geographic Photo

"Insects pollinating Australian tongue orchids (Cryptostylis species) frequently ejaculate and waste copious sperm," they wrote in a report in The American Naturalist.

It is not harmless to the wasps, who may suffer more than an inconvenience. "Male pollinators can prefer orchids to real females, prematurely end a copulation with a real female to visit an orchid, or be unable to find real female mates among false orchid signals," the researchers wrote.

"Unquestionably, producing sperm, ejaculate, or seminal fluids is costly for many animals. The energetic demands of sperm production can result in reduced body mass, a shortened life span, or limited lifetime sperm production," they added.

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."  If it was good would they care? -- ScienceNewsOnline photograph --

But this arms race of sexual trickery works in more than one way for the flower. "We also show that orchid species provoking such extreme pollinator behavior have the highest pollination success," they added.

"How can deception persist, given the costs to pollinators?"

They found that the wasps who frequent these flowers are haplodiploid species. Like bees, ants and similar species, offspring produced by sexual unions are female, while females can also produce males asexually.

"Therefore, female insects deprived of matings by orchid deception could still produce male offspring, which may even enhance orchid pollination," the researchers wrote.

Gaskett's team examined flowers after wasps visited them and found the hoodwinked males did eventually learn their lesson.

"With experience, male Lissopimpla excelsa wasps become less likely to copulate with and pollinate sexually deceptive Cryptostylis orchids," they wrote.