pseudocopulation

/ ˌsjuːdəʊˌkɒpjʊˈleɪʃən /

noun

1. botany pollination of plants, esp orchids, by male insects while attempting to mate with flowers that resemble the female insect

Example Sentences

Upon closer inspection, it reveals a remarkable case of plant sexual deception, a form of pseudocopulation.

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"Plant sexual deception has fascinated biologists for centuries, but the evolution of sexually deceptive flowers remains somewhat enigmatic due to their extreme specialization and the absence of intermediately deceptive forms," the authors wrote, meaning that we don't really see any examples of plants that only go halfway on pseudocopulation.

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The answer may involve the shipworm’s sensory papillae, fleshy bumps on the excurrent siphons of the animal that become erect during pseudocopulation, Dr. Distel said.

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For example, if the shipworm you dissect just went through a marathon session of pseudocopulation and belched out all its sperm, it might appear female.

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In the future, Dr. Shipway hopes to secure funding to study pseudocopulation more formally, with discrete numbers of shipworms spaced apart in the tank to see how they interact, and perhaps to sleuth out whether The Wipe is an ingenious strategy or a wiggly fluke.

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