Batesian mimicry in the nonrewarding saprophytic orchid .

Batesian mimicry, a type of deceptive pollination, is a complicated strategy used by nonrewarding plants to attract pollinators, but some hypotheses concerning this have not been systematically verified. In order to show in detail a case of Batesian mimicry on saprophytic orchid , the ecological relationship between , and spp. was explored. could provide a reward to sp., whereas not. The floral morphology and geographical distribution of these two plants were highly overlapping, and the fruit set rate of was significantly positively correlated with the number of nearby individuals. In a glass cylinder experiment, and attracted spp. through visual signals, but the insect could not distinguish between flowers of the two plants before landing on flowers. The ultraviolet reflection spectra of flowers between the two plant species were highly similar. In the hexagonal color models constructed according to the visual characteristics of bees, the flower color signals of these two plant species highly overlap, indicating that the visual signals of the flowers of the two plants to the pollinator were greatly similar. All of these results provided evidence that simulated the visual signals of through Batesian mimicry, thereby deceptively attracting spp.