Funny
faces revealed
Both last week’s faces
were examples of mimicry, one visual, one olfactory. The mink face or the ying-yang
sign are markings on an elephant hawk moth caterpillar.
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A predator’s
glimpse of that face may be a matter of life and death for the caterpillar.
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The host plant is menyanthes,
the bog bean. This aquatic plant sprawls on the pondside bank where the
hawkmoth larva was found.
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No one identified
Ceropegia sandersoni (shame on you). It’s funny face is a partially enclosed
flower that is a lure for small flies. To female dipterans, the flower emits
heady foetid smells of pheromones and carrion. Enticed to the trap, guide hairs
take them in one direction, down. Pollination
is achieved at the base of the long corolla tube. After a few days the
entrapping hairs relax and the flies escape and move on, carrying pollen to
another flower.
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We use Ceropegia
sandersonii and Ceropegia woodii as a cascading feature in our conservatory.
Note the aphid infection with honeydew on the leaves.
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“Clearly a case of
drop pollination. I spy aphids and
their moulted skins. Roger needs to water his ceropegias with provado vine
weevil killer. Bit of a mess up here, Brenda.”
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