Posted by: Sandy Steinman | September 29, 2025

This flower smells like dying ants, and flies can’t resist it

ScienceDaily reported

Vincetoxicum nakaianum tricks flies into pollinating it by imitating the smell of ants attacked by spiders. Ko Mochizuki stumbled upon this finding when he noticed flies clustering around the flowers and later confirmed their unusual preference. The study reveals the first known case of ant odor mimicry in plants, expanding our understanding of how diverse floral deception can be.

— Read on www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/09/250925025308.htm


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