Satyrium microrrhynchum flowers

No spurs are visible or even present on these Satyrium microrrhynchum flowers. This is one of the Satyrium species in which spurs have over many generations become reduced to vestigial sacs or even discarded, from loss of their original function. Instead of requiring spurs as containers, the nectar is secreted here by long, floral hairs, sometimes referred to as lollipop hairs, in droplets conveniently presented directly to pollinators as fast food.

These hairs are visible in the photo, positioned at the mouth of the shallow lip, where it meets the base of the pair of lateral petals below the column. This equips the flower for pollination by short-tongue insects, particularly certain wasps and beetles. They collect the nectar from the hairs with eager, vigorous movements, while simultaneously and unintentionally uploading pollinaria onto their heads.

These pollinaria are expediently positioned on the column immediately above the hairs, the sticky stigma just above that. Often enough, beetle or wasp arrives at the next flower still hungry, hoodwinked into carrying pollen along from the previous flower. One of the worlds earliest parcel post services is still working.

Robust, habitual insect dining movements, combined with the juxtaposition of lollipops, pollen sources and expectant stigma delivery points in vertical array, does the trick for the orchid, the insect having no complaints (Johnson, et al, 2007, American Journal of Botany, 94(1), pp. 47-55; Wikipedia; www.orchidspecies.com).