''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 extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of about 25 species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

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 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

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 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. 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 medicinal ...

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 nomenclat ...

, 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 entert ...

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
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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 co ...

) 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 to ...

. 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 b ...

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 mil ...

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 gametophyt ...

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 masse ...

, then push open the

anther The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

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 cre ...

List of species

*'' Chiloglottis anaticeps'' D.L.Jones (1991) - duck's-head wasp orchid, bird orchid (N.S.W.) *'' Chiloglottis chlorantha'' 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'' Fitzg. (1877) - common ant orchid (N.S.W.) *'' Chiloglottis grammata'' G.W.Carr (1991) - small bird orchid (Tas.) *'' Chiloglottis gunnii'' Lindl. (1840) - tall bird orchid (Tas.) *'' Chiloglottis jeanesii'' D.L.Jones (1997) - mountain bird orchid (Vic.) *''

Chiloglottis longiclavata ''Chiloglottis longiclavata'', commonly known as the northern wasp orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to Queensland. It has two leaves and a single narrow, pinkish green flower with a dark blackish red callus covering most of the upper surfac ...

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

Chiloglottis palachila ''Chiloglottis palachila'', commonly known as the spade-lipped wasp orchid, is a species of orchid Endemism, endemic to some of the higher places in northern New South Wales. It has two leaves and a single green to greenish pink flower with a bla ...

'' D.L.Jones & M.A.Clem. (1991) - spade-lipped wasp orchid (N.S.W.) *'' Chiloglottis × pescottiana'' 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 c ...

'' 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'' Fitzg. (1877) - broad-lip bird orchid, diamond ant orchid, dainty bird-orchid (N.S.W., Qld., Vic., S.A., Tas.) *'' Chiloglottis triceratops'' D.L.Jones (1998) - three-horned bird orchid (Tas.) *'' Chiloglottis trilabra'' Fitzg. (1883) - long-clubbed wasp orchid (N.S.W., Vic.) *'' Chiloglottis trullata'' D.L.Jones (1991) - triangular orchid (Qld.) *'' Chiloglottis truncata'' D.L.Jones & M.A.Clem. (1987) - small ant orchid (Qld.) *''

Chiloglottis turfosa ''Chiloglottis turfosa'', commonly known as the bog bird orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. It has two dark green leaves and a single greenish to reddish brown flower with a shi ...

'' 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)