Animalia > Arthropoda > Insecta > Hymenoptera > Ichneumonidae > Lissopimpla > Lissopimpla excelsa

Lissopimpla excelsa

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Lissopimpla excelsa, commonly known as the orchid dupe wasp, is a Wasp of the family Ichneumonidae native to Australia. Although also found in New Zealand it has probably been introduced there. It pollinates all five Australian members of the orchid genus Cryptostylis . The male wasp mistakes the flower parts for a female wasp and attempts to copulate with it. Although the different species can occur together, they appear to inhibit cross-fertilisation and no hybrids are found in nature. This discovery was made by Australian naturalist Edith Coleman in 1928. The term "pseudocopulation" has since been coined to describe the phenomenon. The mimicking of flowers to resemble female wasp parts has since been recorded in other orchid genera.
View Wikipedia Record: Lissopimpla excelsa

Predators

Apothechyla carbo[1]
Colepia abludo[1]

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Predator-Prey Database for the family Asilidae (Hexapoda: Diptera) Prepared by Dr. Robert Lavigne, Professor Emeritus, University of Wyoming, USA and Dr. Jason Londt (Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg)
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0