Botanical sleuths discover pollinating cricket
Botanical sleuths investigating how an unusual orchid is pollinated on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion have discovered a new and seemingly unique type of cricket.
The mystery of the green and white Angraecum cadetii, and the similar comet orchid in Madagascar, has baffled botanists since Charles Darwin speculated that the flowers, which has a very long nectar spur, would need to be pollinated by insects with equally long tongues.
In the case of the comet orchid, it was discovered that the insect responsible was a hawk moth with a 35-centimetre probiscus. But there are few hawk moths on Reunion so the mystery there had remained unsolved – until now.
Using a night vision camera trained on one of the plants, researchers from Reunion University, the UK’s Royal Botanical Gardens and France’s Strasbourg University discovered that the creature responsible was a small wingless cricket measuring just 3 centimeters in length but with an extremely long antennae. Further research revealed that the insect was
“We were very surprised when we saw a cricket,” said researcher Claire Micheneau. “Crickets usually eat flowers, not pollinate them.”
Footage of the cricket shows it crawling into a flower and poking its head into the nectar spur before retreating with lumps of pollen attached to its head.
“Although crickets are typically omnivorous and eat both plant material and other insects, we think the raspy cricket has evolved to eat nectar to compensate for the general scarcity of other insects on Reunion,” said Micheneau.
Mark Chase of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew told the BBC that the insect was “fairly sophisticated” by cricket standards.
“Most crickets just stop eating and find a place to hide away during the daytime and it’s usually a different place every time,” he said. “But this one finds its way back to its own specific nest.”