Orchid dupe wasp
The orchid dupe wasp has a red-brown head and legs and a black body with pairs of big white spots. Its wings are dark and smoky. Some orchid flowers trick the male wasp: they look and smell like a female wasp to him. So he visits the flower and carries its pollen to the next one.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It helps all five kinds of Cryptostylis orchids in Australia to make seeds by carrying their pollen.
To our eyes the orchid does not look like a wasp at all. But wasps see colours differently, and to a wasp the flower and a female wasp look almost the same colour.
People cannot smell these orchids, but the flowers give off a scent that pulls the male wasps in.
An Australian nature lover called Edith Coleman discovered this flower trick in 1928.
It was named in 1864 by an Italian scientist, Achille Costa.
Most asked questions about Orchid dupe wasp
?Why is it called the orchid dupe wasp?
To dupe means to trick. Orchid flowers trick the male wasp into thinking they are a female wasp, and so he carries their pollen.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Lissopimpla excelsa
- Named by
- Costa, 1864
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Ichneumonidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Ichneumonidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Dusky-winged ichneumonid
Where the facts come from
- Lissopimpla excelsa (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by John Tann from Sydney, Australia. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
Bug Wiki honey jar For grown-ups: Bug Wiki is free, with no ads and no tracking. A small tip helps keep it online.Leave a tip
European hornet
Northern giant hornet
Bald-faced hornet
Red velvet ant
Eastern cicada killer
Asian hornet
Bigeminate sigil lady beetle
African mask spider
Dark sheetwebber
Wavy flower weevil
Narrow-banded pond fly
Taschenberg's odorous ant.jpg){kind=link}