Dung Beetle Fooled By Plant's Fake Feces
An African plant produces seeds that smell like antelope dung in order to trick beetles into dispersing their seeds.
Plants produce dung-scented seeds for dung beetles to bury
There are many example of flowers that have evolved to look like other plants, in order to attract animals that will pollinate them. But a plant evolving a seed to mimic something in nature, in order to deceive an animal into dispersing its seeds, was unknown until now.
Dr. Jeremy Midgley, a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cape Town, studied this type of trickery in a grass-like plant in South Africa. The plant produces nut-like seeds that look and smell like antelope dung.
The dung beetle - which eats and lays its eggs in dung - is fooled and responds as it would with real animal feces. The beetle rolls the seed away and buries it. In so doing, it is unwittingly dispersing the seeds of the deceptive plant.
Related Links
- Paper in Nature Plants
- University of Cape Town release
- Phys.org article
- Discovery News story
- New Scientist story