First documented case of plant smelling like an ant to draw pollinators

In a greenhouse in Tokyo, researcher Ko Mochizuki seen one thing uncommon. Flies had been swarming across the delicate flowers of an obscure plant species. The blooms, nonetheless, weren’t providing nectar or brilliant colours to draw these bugs. Instead, they had been releasing a chemical sign that smelled like one thing the flies craved: the scent of an injured ant about to develop into a meal.

For the primary time, scientists have documented a plant that mimics the scent of ants underneath assault to trick pollinators into visiting its flowers. The plant, Vincetoxicum nakaianum, a flowering dogbane species native to Japan, has advanced an ingenious deception technique.

“I was working on another research project,” Mochizuki, of the University of Tokyo, stated in a press release, “and originally collected this species only as a ‘reference’ for comparison. By chance, I noticed chloropid flies gathering around its flowers in the nursery in the Koishikawa Botanical Gardens, and immediately realized that the flowers might be imitating dead insects.”

The thought got here from a fortunate mixture of occasions. Mochizuki had taken an intensive coaching course in 2019 that taught him easy methods to establish the precise fly species visiting the flowers. He had additionally learn analysis papers on insect-pollinated crops. These experiences got here collectively when he noticed the flies gathering on the V. nakaianum flowers.

To check his thought, Mochizuki watched which bugs visited the flowers and in contrast the chemical scent of the flowers with the scent given off by completely different bugs. The evaluation confirmed that the flowers’ odor matched most intently with the scent launched by ants when spiders attacked them.

There was an issue with this concept: no scientific papers had ever reported that chloropid flies or related species feed on ants that had been injured by predators like spiders. To resolve this drawback, Mochizuki searched social media platforms the place novice naturalists had documented cases of spiders attacking ants whereas kleptoparasitic flies gathered to feed. These real-world observations supported his concept.

Laboratory testing confirmed the connection. Chemical evaluation recognized 5 key compounds within the floral scent: nonane, undecane, octyl acetate, decyl acetate and methyl 6-methyl salicylate. When scientists introduced pollinating flies with a mix of those compounds, the flies had been drawn to it. Removing both decyl acetate or methyl 6-methyl salicylate made the combination unattractive to flies, exhibiting these two compounds had been important for the trick to work.

When scientists in contrast the compounds launched by injured formica ants with the V. nakaianum floral scent, they discovered them strikingly related. Behavioral experiments utilizing Y-maze setups confirmed that pollinators had been drawn to Formica japonica ants following spider assaults, supporting the mimicry mannequin.

“This is the first recorded instance of a plant employing such a sophisticated form of ant mimicry,” Mochizuki stated. “That moment, when I saw the flies on the flowers, was truly one of inspiration. A hypothesis suddenly taking shape. This experience taught me that unexpected discoveries often emerge from a combination of preparation and chance.”

The discovery helps scientists perceive how crops and pollinators work together and the way crops use deception methods. Ants are one of the widespread species, and ant mimicry has advanced in lots of invertebrate species independently.

Plant deception isn’t restricted to scent alone. Research estimates that floral deception has advanced in no less than 7,500 species of flowering crops, with the majority being orchids. Many of those crops entice pollinators with out providing any reward, like nectar.

Plant mimicry happens when a plant evolves to resemble one other organism or object, ceaselessly for protection or to draw pollinators. Most plant mimicry entails visible deception, making this scent-based discovery significantly uncommon.

The flies go to the plant as a result of they’re trying to find injured ants to feed on and lay eggs in. They inadvertently pollinate the plant within the course of, serving to it reproduce regardless that they obtain nothing in return from the flower.

Mochizuki plans to proceed this analysis by learning how ant mimicry advanced in V. nakaianum and evaluating it with associated species. He additionally intends to seek for different examples of floral mimicry in different plant teams.

These discoveries may assist scientists higher perceive how crops adapt to their environments and inform conservation efforts as habitats proceed to alter underneath human pressures.

Banner picture of an ant by Andreas Kay by way of Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Consider the scorpions

Citations:

Mochizuki, Okay. (2025). Olfactory floral mimicry of injured ants mediates the attraction of kleptoparasitic fly pollinators. Current Biology, 35(20), 5097-5105. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2025.08.060 

Jin, X., Ren, Z., Xu, S., Wang, H., Li, D., & Li, Z. (2014). The evolution of floral deception in Epipactis veratrifolia (Orchidaceae): From oblique protection to pollination. BMC Plant Biology, 14(1), 63. doi:10.1186/1471-2229-14-63

Liz Kimbrough is a employees author for Mongabay and holds a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from Tulane University, the place she studied the microbiomes of timber. View extra of her reporting right here.

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