pseudocopulation

British

/ ˌsjuːdəʊˌkɒpjʊˈleɪʃən /

noun

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

This ruse, which scientists call pseudocopulation, works because the orchid tends to bloom during a specific window each spring — shortly after lonely male bees emerge from hibernation but before female bees appear.

From New York Times • Apr. 4, 2018

Psychopsis orchids look a whole lot like butterflies, and they probably evolved to trick gullible bugs into pollinating them through pseudocopulation.

From Washington Times • Jan. 24, 2015

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023