#1701 to 1708 - Some Flowers and Some Flower Wasps
#1701 - Caleana nigrita - Flying Duck Orchid
Another Hammer Orchid, again found a wide part of the SW, usually in woodland and scrubland. This one was growing a few feet away from the King-in-his-Carriage from the earlier post.
Duck Orchids are found in all Australian states, but not in the Northern Territory, and one species also grows in New Zealand. As with Drakaea, they’re pollinated by confused Thynnid Wasps who mistake the labellum for a wingless female. But unlike that genus, the labellum of the Duck Orchids swings down, with the cup-shaped column holding the wasp in place long enough to pick up or deliver pollen.
The genus is named after George Caley, a self-taught botanist who worked in Australia from 1800 to 1810. The species is named after the slightly singed appearence of the labellum, but it’s also appropriate that the orchid grows well after fire.
#1702 - Caleana hortiorum - Hort’s Duck Orchid
Not one I saw down in the SW on this trip, but I’ve somehow never discussed it before despite haven’t photographed this one in the Goodale Reserve SE of Perth, a few years back. It’s possible the Tumblr Purge ate the post, though.
Like other Duck Orchids, this species only ever grows a single small leaf, but unlike those, the leaf is still unwithered at the time of flowering. It grows in clearings in woodlands and scrub, between Perth and Albany. Hort’s duck orchid was first formally described in 2006 by Stephen Hopper and Andrew Brown who gave it the name Paracaleana hortiorum, but in 2014, based on molecular studies, Joseph Miller and Mark Clements transferred all the Paracaleana species back to Caleana. The specific epithet (hortiorum) honours Jean and Fred Hort who were early collectors of this plant (and happen to be acquaintances of mine).
#1703 & 1708 - Tiphiid Wasps
Given I’ve just discussed orchids that are pollinated by deluded male Tiphiid wasps, here’s a few of the wasps. Unsurprisingly, since the last few months are peak wasp-orchid and general wildflower season here in WA, there’s a lot of the Tiphiid Flower wasps about - at least 5 and more likely 6 different species in these photos. Actually telling you which species these are, on the other hand, is a different matter entirely, not least because the taxonomy of the family is desperately in need of revision. There’s ongoing argument about whether a lot of them should be split off into the Thynnidae.
Flower Wasps are solitary wasps that usually parasitise beetle larvae, most often scarabs. The females are wingless, and climb to the top of grass stems to wait for a male to find them, then cling to him with their massive jaws until they can lock their genetalia together. The only food she’ll eat as an adult is nectar she can sip as she’s carried around, or more likely nectar he’s gorged on and passed through his body, which is what the ones doubled back underneath are doing. Then she’ll drop off and dig back into the ground seeking a beetle grub or mole cricket to paralyse and parasitise.