Study
Orchid pollination by sexual swindle
Schiestl, Florian P.; Ayasse, Manfred; Paulus, Hannes F.; Löfstedt, Christer; Hansson, Bill S.; Ibarra, Fernando; Francke, Wittko
Nature, 1999
The scent of the early spider orchid and the sex pheromone of its solitary bee pollinator were analysed by gas chromatography, the active compounds identified electrophysiologically, and synthetic blends tested on males in the field.
- Studied in
- Ophrys sphegodes, Andrena nigroaenea
- Sample size
- chemical analysis plus field bioassays with synthetic blends
The orchid produces the same hydrocarbon blend, in nearly the same proportions, as a receptive female bee. Male bees attempt to copulate with the flower, and synthetic blends alone elicited the same behaviour with no flower present.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
The orchid achieves pollination by chemically mimicking the sex pheromone of its pollinator, deceiving males into pseudocopulation.
How NatureHQ reads it
The synthetic-blend test is what raises this above a good story: males respond to the chemistry on its own, so the deception is olfactory rather than visual. It also needs bounding, because it is routinely generalised. This is one orchid genus and one bee species. Most orchids are not sexually deceptive, and many are not deceptive at all — the wider point is that orchid pollination is extraordinarily species-specific, not that orchids as a group trick insects.
- One orchid species and its single pollinator; not a statement about orchids generally.
- Field bioassays measure male approach and attempted copulation, not pollen transfer efficiency.
- Blend proportions vary between orchid populations in ways not fully characterised.
The orchid that smells like a female bee
Why do male bees try to mate with an early spider orchid — is it what the flower looks like, or what it smells like?
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Nature PortfolioPublished in a Nature Portfolio journal.
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref on 2026-08-11.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-10.