Bumblebee Orchid

Ophrys
Bumblebee Orchid
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocots
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Orchidaceae
Subfamily:	Orchidoideae
Tribe:	Orchideae
Subtribe:	Orchidinae
Alliance:	Orchis
Genus:	Ophrys
Species:	O. bombyliflora
Binomial name
Ophrys bombyliflora

The Bumblebee Orchid (Ophrys bombyliflora) ("Bumblebee Flower Eyebrow") is a typical example. It has flowers that look and smell so much like female Bumblebees that males flying nearby are irresistibly drawn in by this chemical signal, stimulating them sexually. The insect gets so excited that he starts to copulate with the flower. This is termed pseudocopulation. The firmness, the smoothness and the velvety hairs of the lip are a further incentive for the insect to enter the flower. The pollinia inadvertently stick to the head or the abdomen of the male bumblebee. On visiting another orchid of the same species, the bumblebee pollinates its sticky stigma with the pollinia. The filaments of the pollinia have, during transport, taken such a position that the waxy pollen are able to stick to the stigma. Such is the refinement of the reproduction. If the filaments hadn’t taken the new position, the pollinia could not have pollinated the new orchid.

"Ophrys" is from the Greek in reference to the hairy lips of the flowers of this genus.

"bymbyli•flora" is from the Latin in reference to the silky flowers of this species.