''Chiloglottis'', commonly known as wasp orchids, ant orchids or bird orchids, is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

of about 25 species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

s in the orchid family,

Orchidaceae Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

and is found in eastern Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

. Wasp orchids are

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...

herbs In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicina ...

which grow in colonies of genetically identical plants. They usually have two leaves at the base of the plant and a single

resupinate Resupination is derived from the Latin word ''resupinus'', meaning "bent back with the face upward" or "on the back". "Resupination" is the noun form of the adjective "resupine" which means "being upside-down, supine or facing upward". The word " ...

("upside-down") flower. The labellum is more or less diamond-shaped and has calli resembling the body of a wingless female wasp. Chiloglottis formicifera (labelled)

Taxonomy and naming

The genus ''Chiloglottis'' was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown. Brown described '' Chiloglottis diphylla'' at the same time, making it the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

. David Jones has transferred some species, especially those commonly known as "bird orchids" (''Simpliglottis'') and "ant orchids" (''Myrmechila'') to other

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial ...

, but the change has not been widely accepted.

Distribution

This genus of orchids is

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and enterta ...

to Australia and

(including

Chatham Island Chatham Island ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) is by far the largest island of the Chatham Islands group, in the south Pacific Ocean off the eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is said to be "halfway bet ...

and the

Antipodes Islands The Antipodes Islands ( Maōri: Moutere Mahue; "Abandoned island") are inhospitable and uninhabited volcanic islands in subantarctic waters to the south of – and territorially part of – New Zealand. The 21 km2 archipelago lies 860 ...

).Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref>

Ecology

The flowers of wasp, ant and bird orchids are pollinated by sexual deception (

pseudocopulation Pseudocopulation describes behaviors similar to copulation that serve a reproductive function for one or both participants but do not involve actual sexual union between the individuals. It is most generally applied to a pollinator attempting to ...

) of thynnine

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

s, except for '' C. cornuta'' which is

self-pollinating Self-pollination is a form of pollination in which pollen from the same plant arrives at the stigma of a flower (in flowering plants) or at the ovule (in gymnosperms). There are two types of self-pollination: in autogamy, pollen is transferred t ...

. A key feature is that each species of orchid is pollinated by a different species of wasp. Male wasps are attracted by wind-borne

pheromone A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavio ...

s released by glands on the

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined ...

s of the flowers. They usually land on the labellum, on another part of the plant or nearby and then walk or fly to the labellum. They crawl over the labellum, searching for the female wasp. They then attempt to lift and fly away with the dummy female but this action brings them into contact with the

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

. If the insect has

pollinia A pollinium (plural pollinia) is a coherent mass of pollen grains in a plant that are the product of only one anther, but are transferred, during pollination, as a single unit. This is regularly seen in plants such as orchids and many species of mi ...

from another orchid on its back, the contained

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametop ...

will attach to the sticky stigma. Alternatively, if there are no pollinia on its back, the insect may move backward, receive a coat of glue from the flower's

rostellum The rostellum is a projecting part of the column in Orchidaceae flowers, and separates the male androecium from the female gynoecium, commonly preventing self-fertilisation. In many orchids, such as '' Orchis mascula'', the pollinia or pollen mas ...

, then push open the anther and removing any pollinia present, which adhere to the insect's

thorax The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the ...

List of species

*'' Chiloglottis anaticeps'' D.L.Jones (1991) - duck's-head wasp orchid, bird orchid (N.S.W.) *''

Chiloglottis chlorantha ''Chiloglottis chlorantha'', commonly known as the Wollongong bird orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to a small part of New South Wales. It has two broad leaves and a single green to yellowish green flower with about twelve reddish, yellowi ...

'' D.L.Jones (1991) - Wollongong bird orchid (N.S.W.) *'' Chiloglottis cornuta'' Hook.f. (1844) - green bird orchid (N.S.W., Vic., S.A., Tas., N.Z.) *'' Chiloglottis diphylla'' R.Br. (1810) - common wasp orchid (N.S.W., Qld.) *''

Chiloglottis formicifera ''Chiloglottis formicifera'', commonly known as the common ant orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to New South Wales. It has two broad leaves and a single narrow, greenish or reddish flower with a black, ant-like callus covering most of the ...

'' Fitzg. (1877) - common ant orchid (N.S.W.) *'' Chiloglottis grammata'' G.W.Carr (1991) - small bird orchid (Tas.) *''

Chiloglottis gunnii ''Chiloglottis gunnii'', commonly known as the tall bird orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to Tasmania. It has two broad leaves and a single green to purplish brown flower with a line of erect calli with swollen heads along the mid-line of ...

'' Lindl. (1840) - tall bird orchid (Tas.) *''

Chiloglottis jeanesii ''Chiloglottis jeanesii'', commonly known as the mountain bird orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to Victoria. It has two broad leaves and a single green to dark purplish brown flower with shiny black, column-like calli on the labellum. ...

'' D.L.Jones (1997) - mountain bird orchid (Vic.) *'' Chiloglottis longiclavata'' D.L.Jones (1991) - northern wasp orchid (Qld.) *'' Chiloglottis palachila'' D.L.Jones & M.A.Clem. (1991) - spade-lipped wasp orchid (N.S.W.) *''

Chiloglottis × pescottiana ''Chiloglottis × pescottiana'', commonly known as the bronze bird orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to south-eastern Australia. It has two broad leaves and a single greenish bronze or purplish brown flower with a black, ant-like callus on ...

'' R.S.Rogers (1918) - bronze bird orchid (N.S.W., Vic.) *''

Chiloglottis platyptera ''Chiloglottis platyptera'', commonly known as the winged ant orchid or Barrington Tops ant orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to the New England Tableland of New South Wales. It has two broad leaves and a single greenish brown flower with a ...

'' D.L.Jones (1991) - winged ant orchid, Barrington Tops ant orchid (N.S.W.) *'' Chiloglottis pluricallata'' D.L.Jones (1991) - clustered bird orchid (N.S.W.) *'' Chiloglottis reflexa'' (Labill.) Druce (1917) - short-clubbed wasp orchid (N.S.W., Vic.) *'' Chiloglottis seminuda'' D.L.Jones (1991) - turtle orchid (N.S.W., Vic.) *'' Chiloglottis sphaerula'' D.L.Jones (2006) (N.S.W.) *'' Chiloglottis sphyrnoides'' D.L.Jones (1991) - forest wasp orchid (N.S.W., Qld.) *'' Chiloglottis sylvestris'' D.L.Jones & M.A.Clem. (1987) - small wasp orchid (N.S.W., Qld.) *''

Chiloglottis trapeziformis ''Chiloglottis trapeziformis'', commonly known as the broad-lip bird orchid, diamond ant orchid or dainty bird-orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to south-eastern Australia. It has two narrow leaves and a narrow, greenish to purplish or brown ...

'' Fitzg. (1877) - broad-lip bird orchid, diamond ant orchid, dainty bird-orchid (N.S.W., Qld., Vic., S.A., Tas.) *''

Chiloglottis triceratops ''Chiloglottis triceratops'', commonly known as the three-horned bird orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to Tasmania. It has two broad leaves and a greenish brown to purplish brown flower with a few column-like calli near the mid-line of the ...

'' D.L.Jones (1998) - three-horned bird orchid (Tas.) *''

Chiloglottis trilabra ''Chiloglottis trilabra'', commonly known as the long-clubbed wasp orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to south-eastern Australia. It has two dark green leaves and a single greenish brown or pinkish flower with a dark red to black, ant-like c ...

'' Fitzg. (1883) - long-clubbed wasp orchid (N.S.W., Vic.) *''

Chiloglottis trullata ''Chiloglottis trullata'', commonly known as the triangular orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to Queensland. It has two dark green leaves and a single small, green or pinkish flower with a shiny, dark reddish black, insect-like callus surrou ...

'' D.L.Jones (1991) - triangular orchid (Qld.) *''

Chiloglottis truncata ''Chiloglottis truncata'', commonly known as the small ant orchid, is a small species of orchid endemic to Queensland. It has two leaves and a single green flower with a shiny black, insect-like callus occupying most of the labellum. Descripti ...

'' D.L.Jones & M.A.Clem. (1987) - small ant orchid (Qld.) *'' Chiloglottis turfosa'' D.L.Jones, (1991) - bog bird orchid (N.S.W., A.C.T.) *''

Chiloglottis valida ''Chiloglottis valida'', commonly known as the large bird orchid or common bird orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to south-eastern Australia.It has two dark green leaves and a single greenish purple to purplish brown flower with six to ten bl ...

'' D.L.Jones, (1991) - large bird orchid, common bird orchid (N.S.W., A.C.T.)

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q429883 Diurideae genera Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)