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Stinking beauty betrays dung beetles
A lovely purple flower in Borneo provides one of the rare examples of a specialized, pungent fragrance attracts dung beetles.
References:
Sakai, S., and T. Inoue. 1999. A new pollination system: Dung-beetle pollination discovered in Orchidantha inouei (Lowiaceae, Zingiberales) in Sarawak, Malaysia. American Journal of Botany 86(January):56.
Further Readings:
1996. What the dinosaurs left behind. Science News 150(Sept. 21):186.
Bastiaan, M. 1984. The Sex Life of Flowers. New York: Facts on File.
Sources:
Gordon Frankie
University of California, Berkeley
Division of Insect Biology
Wellman Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
Shoko Sakai
Kyoto University
Center for Ecological Research
Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502
Japan
From Science News, Vol. 155, No. 4, January 23, 1999, p. 55. Copyright © 1999, Science Service.
