Abstract
Orchids are fascinating to the evolutionary biologists because of their spectacular flower structure, colours and specialized strategies in pollination. In 30,000 species of orchids, one third accomplishes pollination through deception by mimicking food, shelter and sexual partner of model insects. In sexual deception, orchids lure their pollinators by mimicking sex pheromone and by depicting the morphology of their model insects on the flower labellum. In Australian orchid genus Chiloglottis, occurrence of model’s (female sex of pollinator) sex pheromone mimicry for pollination through sexual deception is well established. However, the morphological evolution of calli structures on labellum representing model insect mimic in Chiloglottis is still a mystery. In this study, we qualitatively analysed the calli structures on the labellum in 21 species of the genus Chiloglottis and propose its evolution progressing from organ to organism level of the model with a few intermediate mimics in the ‘Darwinian Style’. From the qualitative analysis, we distinguish 3 groups of female wasp mimic evolution amongst 21 species as organ (parts of head and thorax, 8 species), intermediate (imperfect head and thorax, 8 species) and organism (head, thorax and abdomen, 5 species) level based on the arrangement of calli structures on the labellum. The labellum shape is found to have an association in the evolution of mimic structure, depicting cordate in organ level and spatulate or obovate or diamond shape in intermediate and organismal forms. Our results clearly indicate that the organismal form of insect mimics might have evolved from organ level in sexually deceptive orchids.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ågren L, Kullenberg B, Sensenbaugh T (1984) Congruences in pilosity between three species of Ophrys (Orchidaceae) and their hymenopteran pollinators. Nova Acta Reg Soc Sci Ups 3:15–25
Bower CC, Brown GR (2009) Pollinator specificity, cryptic species and geographical patterns in pollinator responses to sexually deceptive orchids in the genus Chiloglottis: the Chiloglottis gunnii complex. Aust J Bot 57:37–55
Dafni A (1984) Mimicry and deception in pollination. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 15:259–278
Davies TJ, Barraclough TG, Chase MW, Soltis PS, Soltis DE, Savolainen V (2004) Darwin’s abominable mystery: insight from a supertree of the angiosperms. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 101:1904–1909
Harden GJ (1993) Flora of New South Wales, vol 4. New South Wales University Press, Randwick
Jersáková J, Johnson SD, Kindlmann P (2006) Mechanisms and evolution of deceptive pollination in orchids. Biol Rev 81:219–235
Jones DL (1991) New taxa of Australian Orchidaceae. Aust Orchid Res 2:1–207
Jones DL (1997) Chiloglottis jeanesii (Orchidaceae), a new species from Victoria. Muelleria 10:63–67
Mant JG, Schiestl FP, Peakall R, Weston PH (2002) A phylogenetic study of pollinator conservatism among sexually deceptive orchids. Evolution 56:888–898
Mant J, Peakall R, Weston PH (2005a) Specific pollinator attraction and the diversification of sexually deceptive Chiloglottis (Orchidaceae). Plant Syst Evol 253:185–200
Mant J, Brown GR, Weston PH (2005b) Opportunistic pollinator shifts among sexually deceptive orchids indicated by a phylogeny of pollinating and non-pollinating thynnine wasps (Tiphiidae). Biol J Linn Soc 86:381–395
Mant J, Bower CC, Weston PH, Peakall R (2005c) Phylogeography of pollinator-specific sexually deceptive Chiloglottis taxa (Orchidaceae): evidence for sympatric divergence? Mol Ecol 14:3067–3076
Nilsson LA (1992) Orchid pollination biology. Trends Ecol Evol 7:255–259
Peakall R, Whitehead MR (2014) Floral odour chemistry defines species boundaries and underpins strong reproductive isolation in sexually deceptive orchids. Ann Bot 113:341–355
Peakall R, Bower CC, Logan AE, Nicol HI (1997) Confirmation of the hybrid origin of Chiloglottis X pescottiana (Orchidaceae: Diurideae). 1. Genetic and morphometric evidence. Aust J Bot 45:839–855
Peakall R, Ebert D, Poldy J, Barrow RA, Francke W, Bower CC et al (2010) Pollinator specificity, floral odour chemistry and the phylogeny of Australian sexually deceptive Chiloglottis orchids: implications for pollinator driven speciation. New Phytol 188:437–450
Schiestl FP, Peakall R, Mant JG, Ibarra F, Schulz C, Francke S et al (2003) The chemistry of sexual deception in an orchid-wasp pollination system. Science 302:437–438
Acknowledgements
We are indebted to Mr. Colin Rowan and Mischa for providing permission to use the orchid photographs available on their website, RetiredAussies (http://www.retiredaussies.com), for our analysis. We thank Mr. Pieter C. Brouwer for giving permission to use his photograph of Chiloglottis formicifera from the website (http://www.pbase.com). We express our gratitude to Mr. Greg Jordon, University of Tasmania, for allowing us to use his photograph of Chiloglottis cornuta from the website http://www.utas.edu.au/. We appreciate John Varigos for permitting us to use his images of C. longiclavata and C. platyptera from the website https://www.flickr.com. We also thank Mr. Ron and Mrs. Beth for providing permission to use their picture of Drakaea confluens from the website (https://www.flickr.com). This piece of work wouldn’t be possible without the role of the Internet and the vast ocean of scientific information provided by the netizens, which helped us to connect, share and study the world remotely. Dr. S. Chandrasekaran is thankful to University Grants Commission–Centre for Advanced Studies program for providing financial assistance for this work. We are highly thankful to the organisers of the International Symposium on Biodiversity of Medicinal Plants and Orchids (BMPO-2018) for allowing us to share the present work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
N., K. et al. (2020). Evolution of Organismal Female Wasp Mimics in Sexually Deceptive Orchid Genus Chiloglottis (Orchidaceae). In: Khasim, S., Hegde, S., González-Arnao, M., Thammasiri, K. (eds) Orchid Biology: Recent Trends & Challenges . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9456-1_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9456-1_19
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-32-9455-4
Online ISBN: 978-981-32-9456-1
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)