Fun With Play-Dough

Certain Australian orchids are going pretty far in their pollinating schemes, researchers have found. Some flowers grow to resemble female wasps, thereby attracting male wasps and messing with their heads. Or, as the case may be, that other body part. The wasps, excitable creatures they are, think they’ve won the jackpot: a female that doesn’t move! They jump on, ejaculate, only to come to the realization they’ve just done the dirty not with a member of their own species, but with a smutty, deceitful flower. Yuck. We have to wonder, is the Cryptostylis Orchid the floral equivalent of the girl that says: “Really, I just want to be friends”?

To be honest, I don’t really see the problem. The wasps that fall for this trick aren’t the smartest; it could be good for the wasps in general to not have these idiots reproduce. Survival of the fittest, if you please. Plus, what’s the result? More orchids, less stupid wasps; what’s not to like? We’re not talking about humans here; imagine trying to get your wife pregnant, and getting distracted by that pretty rosebush in the backyard. Now that would be a tragedy.