Sneaky Orchid Tricks a Wasp | The Green Planet | BBC Earth

[@allisonbackup]

The orchid really said “I’m her, but better” :0

[@AxxLAfriku]

Do you have any idea who is replying to your comment right now? It's the FUNNIEST MAN ALIVE! Me funny (!!!) vids are so extremely funny, if you don't cry tears of laughter, you are allowed to thumb down me XTREMELY FUNNY vids! Do you think me funny (!!!) vids are funny, dear alli

[@erdiahdiah3738]

pada modus terus

[@1480-b5g]

@@AxxLAfriku you make cringe content. Garbage material. No thanks kiddo

[@dudewoods1885]

Shouldn't waste good nuts

[@justush7115]

@Fingering Kitty oh please no

[@MrToothpicks]

Imagine being a girl, trying to get a guy to notice you only for him to get confused and try to mate with a plant, not once, but twice

[@Stokurev_]

Maybe an anime bodypillow instead of a plant

[@karltaylor1334]

Normal day in California.

[@username4441]

@Ifana,,, 💋👇 children watch these videos you know..

[@Teekles]

The smart female waits until the man gets his fuckboyness out of the way before taking her turn. So maybe the female wasp is thankful for the plant, haha.

[@elultimopujilense]

LMAO

[@Kelsdoggy]

Mind blowing that it evolved to have a HINGE to flip over the male into its pollen. So specific with timing scent and mimicry too. The hinge just did it for me tho

[@turpuss]

i'm more concerned a plant knows what a wasp looks and smells like.

[@organicgrow4440]

turpuss it supposedly is all by accident, #NoDesign

[@David-ex6hv]

How does a plant even evolve to do this? The design seems so complex. It's hard to believe in evolution when you see things like this. Seems more like it was made by God.

[@Gatsby3737]

@@David-ex6hv you gotta think of the time scale, tens of millions of years spent refining and honing this trait.

[@astick5249]

I was also surprised about the hinge thing.

[@Xiaojiantou]

The female wasp is just staring like, "Oh you prefer the toy over me?" Lol.

[@Cheddar_Wizard]

@@ryanwells7842 I dunno man, lotta people that just prefer masturbating to the real thing. An especially common issue in long relationships.

[@walkermcmullin8665]

Not too different when compared to women and anime girls, if you think about it.

[@escapetherace1943]

the orchid is just the future for us, we'll be having androids eventually

[@v-town1980]

The plant doesn't take his money.

[@DiaRanga-bv8xk]

😂😂

[@anmoses21]

Glad to see someone finally taking on the wasps

[@tastethejace]

Wasps are absolutely essential to the health of ecosystems.

[@johanfaisal8613]

Those damn aggressive wannaBees

[@lsal1]

😂😂

[@WhistlesToAnimals]

@@tastethejace You are an educated person. Also, I pick up or pet all kinds of wasps and have never been stung. They don't bother me one bit. Don't be afraid, be a friend, and don't get stung. Works for me. Edited for typo.

[@chitinskin9860]

As if there aren't already dozens of other things that pose an actual threat to wasps rather than just leaving them bamboozled. Bears take on social wasps whenever they get the chance for those delicious larvae, humans are probably the only thing to take on wasps while not always having the intent to eat them, birds are probably the biggest enemy of any solitary wasp, even wasps take on other wasps. This is less of a "finally" and more of "just another thing screwing with wasps, and for once it fortunately isn't beating them senseless, setting them on fire, and/or eating their children".

[@kelvikelv5322]

Who would have thought that wasps could be "catfished" by a plant?

[@353mdsameerrais2]

Wordplay, Nice ! 😂😂😂

[@secretgreen2065]

don't you mean... plantfished?

[@alpeterson]

Imagine this was happening to people, you go out clubbing, think you’re crushing it with some lady, you take her home, an hour later you suddenly come back to your senses and you’ve been grinding a tree. You run off screaming, take a few days off, decide to get back on the horse, it’s going well, BAM! More tree grinding. You’re shaken, emotionally scarred and full of trust issues, you get some therapy, move forward again with your life. You start dating, it’s going too good, you know it’s another tree but decide why not? If it makes you happy who’s to say love can’t exist between you and a tree? You embrace your new life, only you wake up and it’s not a tree, it’s someone named Amber and she’s 3 months pregnant. This time the tree was only in your mind and now you’re about to be a father. The trust issues resume.

[@allanfernandes982]

Please...stop

[@WaveOfDestiny]

This needs to be top comment, it's so good

[@alpeterson]

@@WaveOfDestiny thank you sir

[@alpeterson]

@@allanfernandes982 because you’re a fellow Al I will graciously… never stop.

[@No_OneV]

LOL

[@ichschwoersosehr]

This is so unbelievably beautiful. All these pristine creatures that are in harmony and balance with everything... So magical.

[@mustaphadaddah9406]

Yeah, and all this by chance. Chance must be very ceative:)

[@seanziethen1032]

My boy enjoyed that back flip at the end for the pollens. That’s why he preferred it over the real thing. Even wasps enjoy some excitement 😆

[@_sofie]

This is the dumbest comment I’ve read in a long time

[@CeeDoubleU]

@@_sofie that time of month eh?

[@somnyad]

😆😆😆

[@cellistry]

He likes some gymnastics in bed

[@kaiyon__9622]

@@CeeDoubleU sigma male grindset

[@AgentSquiddy]

David Attenborough is such an amazing narrator!

[@javiercolorado3567]

He should start narrating macba skateboarding games

[@TripleTreuViet]

Its "Sir David Attenborough". Hes been knighted two times, one by the queen in 1985 and again about a month ago by prince Charles. Hes more respected than the prime minister

[@danb6921]

Drakaea glyptodon is one of the species of these unique orchids. At the University of Georgia, there is a research lab that studies the migration pattern of D. glyptodon, which ties to these wasps. Pretty cool stuff.

[@yousillygoose6958]

I apologise for the person who made the lude and inappropriate comment above.

[@stmarysvirus5139]

Not really

[@tvdinner325]

Tucker Carlson and an M&M.

[@VwithNature]

@@yousillygoose6958 kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6HXY32io9eaZ80 Amazing Bird nest video😇👍

[@zachb8012]

Hymenoptera finna pollinate a gymnosperm whether it wants to or not.

[@sp11raps71]

"The results are in, and wasp, you are NOT the father."

[@Gyrbae]

**boisterous screaming, followed by a backflip and high fiving the audience**

[@sp11raps71]

@@Gyrbae As the poor little orchid watches, choking back sap.

[@shokatali05]

😂😂😂😂

[@ImplosionStudios]

I've seen mimicry animal to animal but plant to animal is just a whole extra level of evolutionary prowess.

[@WaterspoutsOfTheDeep]

What evolution? Evolution is pseudo science. There is no way the theory of evolution can account for what we saw in the video. Evolution is a mythology of magic.

[@Valeij221]

I love the wasp that finally found her 😂 could you imagine this happening with humans? Her: “I want you” Him: *picks her up and backflips off bed*

[@Muwufox]

lets mate :3

[@Blackheartzero]

_Grab her waist._ _Pull her close._ _Lift her up._ *_PRIMARY LOTUS!!_*

[@Valeij221]

@@Blackheartzero he unlocked all 8 gates of pain!!! 😱

[@ForOurGood]

That is awesome! The mind boggles at how nature can evolve to create such task specific mechanisms.

[@antoniorincon7574]

It doesn’t boggle when you know how awesome the Creator is 💯

[@ThePopeOfAllDope]

@@antoniorincon7574 yea real awesome of the big G to make a species of fly that only lays its eggs in infant eyes, after which the larvae eat their way out. You can credit God for creation, but you then have to admit that God is indifferent to human suffering, which I don’t find awesome at all.

[@kwando472]

@@ThePopeOfAllDope You can try to explain and give them reason but they will never understand.

[@ThePopeOfAllDope]

@@kwando472 it’s still fun enough for me to do

[@JeSsSe66]

​@@ThePopeOfAllDope Without misery how can we know what is joy. Yin and Yang, Heaven and Hell, Light and Dark etc etc etc. 'God' is funny how 'he' works don't you think?

[@kamokamo1]

I think the BBC have reached the highest level of quality, well done!!!

[@JonDoe0212]

That female wasp just looking over at that orchid like "damn, there goes Jolene, stealing my man again" 😂

[@STNG17-]

These shots are unreal! Very great job you guys did there!

[@joannewillmot675]

After years of searching for orchids in Western Australia I finally found a few Warty hammer orchids last year. I found other species of hammer orchids as well. They are really unique plants and hard to spot because they are tiny! It's really cool to see them in action and have it narrated by Attenborough. 😁

[@alanatolstad4824]

AMAZING. Nature AND photographer.

[@georgianwindow]

You are right about that, mind you our eyes are also too fabulous be able to see all the details. everything is a miracle

[@erronblack308]

That’s insane that a plant could somehow figure all of that out without eyes, ears, or the ability to smell. Like how?

[@kingoliever1]

Standard theory is that it started probably whit a slight bit of red which gave an advantage and any generation whit more red is also more likely to spread there genes which ends up whit some real weird stuff over time.

[@kayagorzan]

@@kingoliever1 I would believe that too

[@annabollig6704]

Well from a creationists point of view, it's the work of God. It's physically impossible for it not to be, like for example the vanilla bean flower only blooms one day then it dies, it has a special little flap over the pollen, the only insect that can get in are the Mexican bees. So if it weren't for bees, vanilla goes extinct, they also know when to pollinate, they both have to be created together for if there are no vanilla flower there is no bees, and no bees there is no vanilla beans, they must coexist together at the same time. Or like the artic bird that flies to Hawaii all the way to the artic to lays its eggs, then flies back. When the chick hatches and grows it flies to Hawaii. How is it physically possible for a small bird fly for hours, possibly days without end get there? If evolution was true it would be dead for they say that it would fly a little further each time but that's not possible for there is no land at all in-between the flight, it's shark bait if it drops, also memory isn't genetic, you can't pass on memories to your offspring, so how does a chick who has never flown in its life, with no parents know exactly what to do and where to go? Or like a lot of cephilpods (octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish) are all color blind but yet it can change to the exact color. Lightning produces a gas when it strikes, this gas goes into the rain and the rain goes down and gets absorbed by the plants and the plants get the nutrients from the Lightning. So after a thunder storm a lot of plants grow a lot better for it got fertilized. Or let's say for the simple butterfly, when it's a caterpillar how does it know it needs to change and become a butterfly? When it goes into its cocoon it's whole body get liquefied, how does liquid know how to recycle its cells? The caterpillar is dead but the cells aren't, how does nature know how to do that? If that happened today it would be known as a dead bug, but it doesn't for God tells its cells to become something a butterfly. Or like some small creatures like frogs or some insects, they have a type of antifreeze so when they get iced over their blood doesn't freeze, how is that possible in the evolution standpoint? Wouldn’t it die if it doesn't have antifreeze? The answer is yes it wouldn't survive. A giraffe has spicets all along its neck, when the giraffe goes to get a drink its large heat pumps and squeezes the blood going down instead of going against gravity, this is problematic for if it's no longer going against gravity how much power is it going down with gravity? Well it would be enough power to blow its brains out, but it doesn't why? Well I tell you, all them arteries and spicets close and the remaining blood goes into the sponge underneath his brain. Let's say if laughably evolution succeeded the first part but then sees a lion, it walks a few steps then faints for the blood is not in its brain, dead giraffe can't evolve, but it doesn't faint because the rest of the blood that's in the sponge get squeezed and goes into its brain. Spiders when they molt need to put an acid on their backs so they can make a door so they can get out, put it in the wrong spot it dies, waits too long it dies. Bombarded beetles make an acid, not just any acid a 3 combination chemical acid. The first 2 doesn't do anything but the 3rd one does, it's the reaction. It has twin tail tubes and can maneuver them in any direction and when it sprays its acid it does it sporadically, why? Well because if it did it all at once it would shoot itself out of there, so spraying sporadically it helps its feet to hold on. Also all 3 chemicals are separated, if evolution was true, how does nature know that these 3 chemicals make an explosive acid? And if it wasn't separated it would have exploded, dead bug can't evolve, just the one or two chemicals nothing would happen, dead bug. Also look at DNA when it replicates, it sends an enzyme down itself looking for errors and fixes them, how does our bodies know how to do that? If evolution was true with trial and error you would be dead, for once DNA goes of track you are going to die. Everything works together too perfectly, even when Steven hawking's idol studied all of these things he became a creationists and when he challenged Steven hawking he refused for he knew he would lose. Steven hawking have said "the universe exists for it knew it needed to exist." Well Mr hawking how does a universe without God, think or even have thought? Impossible, I tell you to study zoology, biology and ecology without any bias or choosing any sides just look at the facts, not guesses nor theories just written proven and retestable facts. If you read a lot of journals and papers you'll find out that scientists hardly know anything about the world, a lot of it is guessing, like yawning scientists have no idea on why we do it or why it's contagious or being ticklish they don't know why either just theories. Did you know that they have came up almost with no new information about menstruation for about 100 years. They still don't how it happens, again theories but no real conclusions. Scientists still can't figure out whose a main or subspecies of the 9 species of giraffe or 8 of zebra. They still have no idea what the earth's core is.

[@stinkybootyhole6566]

@@annabollig6704 lol I think u just proved to me we’re in a simulation. Everything you described seems like it was coded into our reality like a computer. Every thing in this world has too much order. It’s like everything runs a little bit too perfect if you know what I’m saying. How is it that we aren’t getting hit by asteroids more often. We’re literally floating in the middle of space exposed to everything and anything. It’s as if something is keeping peace and order to this universe at all times. It’s Pretty scary when you think about it.

[@fuck_Russian_bots]

Selective breeding

[@ExpoAviation]

Ok so watching a wasp hump an orchid was not on my bingo card for today but here we are...

[@Eisenwulf666]

imagine being the female wasp, standing there like: " i spent one hour dressing up and doing my make-up,the boys will go crazy for me!" Meanwhile the boys : " woah look at that flower..i'm going to rock its world!"

[@menglee6]

For me it's more like looking at a flower that went through all five stage (flower life cycle)

[@roamingari]

so basically the orchid is a very realistic blow up doll? 😅

[@carolbynum705]

Man, I was hoping for that orchid to turn into a preying mantis

[@erronblack308]

Somebody should tell them haha

[@treck87]

You want one of the many Carnivorous Plants for that effect. The can catch lots of wasps.

[@mustafaamiri3277]

that's orchid mantis job

[@A_QuestioningSoul]

This is so intriguing, as to how a plant learns to mimic shape and color of another organism. Nature is wonderful

[@WhatIsThis-zq4hk]

The plant doesn't "learn" anything. Mutations randomly happen. The natural selection of those mutations is NOT random. Some of those mutations attract wasps more than other orchids. Those orchids that attract more wasps to spread pollen are more likely to pass on their genes, and over many generations the orchids become more and more attractive to the wasps. Here's a potential sequence for how this exact orchid evolved: Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of years ago, a normal orchid produced offspring that had a mutation that made it slightly smell like female wasps. The orchids with this mutation attracted lots of pollinators, so this gene was quickly passed down and eventually dominated the gene pool. Some time later, these orchids that slightly smelled like wasps produced another orchid with a mutation that makes it smell even more like a female wasp, and _that_ orchid now attracted the most pollinators, so that gene was quickly spread and became dominant. This process continues each generation and mutations compound and make the orchid smell more and more like wasps. One day, one of these orchids produces an offspring that has a mutation that makes a little red bump next to the pollen. Now this orchid attracts even more wasps, because it already smells like a female wasp and the males see what looks like a female sitting on the orchid. This gene is more likely to be passed down now so it becomes dominant in the gene pool. Again, as the generations go by, more and more mutations that make the orchid look more and more like a female wasp continue to be naturally selected, because that's what the wasps fly to. One day, and orchid produces an offspring with a mutation that makes the red part curl toward the pollen when a wasp lands on it. This significantly increases the chance of the pollen (genes) being spread which makes that gene get passed down more than others, which eventually makes it dominant in the gene pool. Again, as more and more generations go by, these mutations that improve this mechanism compound on each other, and you get this complex arm after thousands/millions of years. Keep in mind, the mutations are random. Some mutations actually make the orchid less likely to attract wasps. Some mutations break the folding arm mechanism. All of the orchids that have these mutations are not able to spread their pollen (genes) that contain the DNA for these problems, so those errors are removed from the gene pool after they fail to reproduce. This is natural selection, which is not random but also not governed by a consciousness being.

[@treck87]

EVERYONE Please don't try to collect ground orchids. Most of them need a certain fungus to stay alive that you can not provide for it. Also please don't pick the flowers or they won't come back. Many orchids are Endangered from habitat loss. Take lots of pictures without disturbing the ground close to their delicate roots and enjoy the pictures.

[@seribelz]

Nah, you dont get to tell me what to do

[@ICasinI]

@@seribelz You're definitely sped

[@ev6558]

@@seribelz Whoa everyone watch out, you're gonna get hurt if you try to stop them from picking their flowers lmao

[@seribelz]

@@ev6558 ohh no I'm picking a flower, the whole ecosystem will collapse

[@treck87]

@@seribelz You are the person that promotes extinction of species by your arrogant destruction. You are the problem with society.

[@CorpusSans]

Distracted Boyfriend meme but wasps... and an orchid.

[@1yearoldiam]

"He hammers against the pollen sacks" Man, they really are just like us.

[@rasianket7220]

With the right sound effects and David's voice, even a film on the microscopic world could be interesting

[@lbk09]

I love nature & all it has to offer us. I just sometimes feel so sad and alone that I watch these videos to cheer me up. I wish my parents were proud of me & happy to know that one day I hope to become a good biologist & look after our planet & animals 🌎

[@jacklonghearse9821]

You ok?

[@vansh6038]

@@jacklonghearse9821 why you asked that ?

[@wardjunior1450]

That took a turn.

[@stoned_Evee]

I'm proud of you.

[@andregaming7154]

woah, what a way to twist your emotions at the end, I hope your parents see the happiness you have and maybe a success in it aswell

[@licansen3331]

yo bbc earth is actually goated for this you truly deserve the million subscriber

[@somnyad]

Orchids are apparently the most advanced of the plant kingdom. Couple this knowledge with the understanding that they only have one set of pollen sacks, and those are precisely designed to be picked up by a specific insect.

[@ThomasBomb45]

Most advanced? How do you quantify that? Every species on life has been evolving from the common ancestor for the same amount of time, from that perspective everything is equally evolved

[@lamergamer5304]

Kinda wholesome how the male wasp just picks up the female and takes her to a romantic area ♥️, lol!

[@deanerhar]

Wasp: hngggggg Orchid: it’s pronounced, “Hinge”

[@dangutube5420]

I could listen to David Attenborough for hours👍🏼

[@aves4081]

Some plants are indeed excellent tricksters!

[@Maniii782]

The wasp - orchid dynamic reminded me of my old couch from the dry humping times

[@WriteWordsMakeMagic]

JD Vance, is that you?

[@Onionbagel]

I just watched a video of a wasp that busted into a plant... Just when you think you've seen it all...

[@tacitozetticci9308]

If you think about it, the plant then proceeded to bust on the wasp's back lol (y'know pollen, semen, it's basically the same stuff)

[@nagarajanv6868]

I am also impressed by the hinge and spring like mechanism of the flower making sure the insect gets attached by the pollen sacs.

[@nesia_b421]

Beautiful narration as always

[@vipahman]

Now I know why that store mannequin was not responding to my advances. Duh!

[@andybeans5790]

Now I'm going to have to look up how the orchid moves the lure

[@KingKing-ny2ew]

It's adventure time.

[@astick5249]

It just has a flimsy joint, so when the wasp tries to fly away with the "female" it instead is flung on the pollen sack, so the plant doesn't have to do any movement.

[@erronblack308]

It doesn’t

[@treck87]

@@erronblack308 Yes, they surely do move that lure against the wasp's wishes.

[@kingdomofanimals]

Incredible that there is so much going on right below our feet!

[@ElementofKindness]

Imagine how much biological life you kill with every step!

[@Stormprobe]

Plants are extremely intelligent lifeforms.

[@lacey2450]

My plant listens when I speak

[@wungle7524]

Not really intelligence in the traditional sense more like evolution

[@astick5249]

0:10 That is unbelievably cute

[@willcookmakeup]

I just don’t understand how this happens though. I’ve watched so many documentaries but it still boggles my mind when plants exhibit biomimicry with non plant specoes

[@Stratelier]

Broadly speaking, at some point between generations a happy accident occurs that improves a species's ability to survive and/or reproduce, so over subsequent generations they start to dominate the population.

[@willcookmakeup]

@@Stratelier I’m sure this sounds stupid but like how do they copy color and shape when they can’t see? Scent replication I can kind of understand but I don’t get how plants visually mimic things they can’t actually see

[@Stratelier]

@@willcookmakeup That's just the thing, it _doesn't_ (at least, not "knowingly") and in this case it's specifically the _wasps_ who determine what traits help the orchid reproduce. Basically, at some point a plant (or a few) put out a strange flower that made nearby wasps think "yeah, I'd hit that" and the rest ... is history. Say one year an orchid plant got its colors wrong, mistakenly produced yellow flowers instead of red ones. If the pollinators ignore it because it's the wrong color then it might end up an evolutionary one-hit wonder and disappear without a trace, perhaps never to be seen again. BUT if the pollinators think these new blondes are sexier than their usual redheads and it gets pollinated more widely, within a few years you might see fewer red flowers and more yellow. Not because the plant was "trying" or "wanting to", it was just doing normal plant things and happened to get lucky (pun intended) in its genetic lottery.

[@dragongirl89115]

So something that can be hard to remember is that this stuff doesn't just happen over night, or even in the span of a few hundred years. This is quite literally millions of years of evolutionary back and forth. Small changes in both creatures through the generations until we see the uh, relationship, that has blossomed today. We also don't see the myriad of failures. how many other plant species there may have been that had started on that same path, but took a wrong turn and died out?

[@CeeDoubleU]

@@willcookmakeup plants have awareness

[@fredokush]

My high ass was confused the entire time 💀

[@kosakukawajiri5007]

To anyone who doesn't understand, the orchid gets its pollination done by luring wasps or other insects depending on species. When the wasp "mates" with the first orchid, pollen sticks to his back and when he meets another orchid, he unknowingly pollinates the second one. It's really clever. I'm glad in the end the wasps figure it out and eventually get their chance to mate.

[@jeffreyhurst7231]

Thanks for explaining what the video clearly should have explained.

[@jerou]

Thanks for explaining something that the video clearly explained.

[@lilj6849]

We know, we watched the video

[@lucentstudios9678]

How are y’all capturing this stuff.. pure amazement.

[@ravisalunke677]

This plant single-handedly beat mankinds smartness

[@Pro_flow666]

I don't know how much these vedios are valuable understanding how this entire reality works..... I m in awe and it's wonderful truly.... Thnk u all for these profound experience

[@Abhinay_Limbu]

I'm always amazed at these traits. Like they don't even have eyes and thinking brain like ours but their traits looks carefully thought and hand picked

[@WhatIsThis-zq4hk]

Mutations randomly happen. The natural selection of those mutations is NOT random. Some of those mutations attract wasps more than other orchids. Those orchids that attract more wasps to spread pollen are more likely to pass on their genes, and over many generations the orchids become more and more attractive to the wasps. Here's a potential sequence for how this exact orchid evolved: Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of years ago, a normal orchid produced offspring that had a mutation that made it slightly smell like female wasps. The orchids with this mutation attracted lots of pollinators, so this gene was quickly passed down and eventually dominated the gene pool. Some time later, these orchids that slightly smelled like wasps produced another orchid with a mutation that makes it smell even more like a female wasp, and _that_ orchid now attracted the most pollinators, so that gene was quickly spread and became dominant. This process continues each generation and mutations compound and make the orchid smell more and more like wasps. One day, one of these orchids produces an offspring that has a mutation that makes a little red bump next to the pollen. Now this orchid attracts even more wasps, because it already smells like a female wasp and the males see what looks like a female sitting on the orchid. This gene is more likely to be passed down now so it becomes dominant in the gene pool. Again, as the generations go by, more and more mutations that make the orchid look more and more like a female wasp continue to be naturally selected, because that's what the wasps fly to. One day, and orchid produces an offspring with a mutation that makes the red part curl toward the pollen when a wasp lands on it. This significantly increases the chance of the pollen (genes) being spread which makes that gene get passed down more than others, which eventually makes it dominant in the gene pool. Again, as more and more generations go by, these mutations that improve this mechanism compound on each other, and you get this complex arm after thousands/millions of years. Keep in mind, the mutations are random. Some mutations actually make the orchid less likely to attract wasps. Some mutations break the folding arm mechanism. All of the orchids that have these mutations are not able to spread their pollen (genes) that contain the DNA for these problems, so those errors are removed from the gene pool after they fail to reproduce. This is natural selection, which is not random but also not governed by a consciousness being.

[@anthonyc8257]

Told as can only be told from the great David Attenborough

[@reueljacques]

Nature is so incredible!!!

[@Funtime-Alex_Fz]

Yea even a second or two of Wasp Sex

[@lsbasu6266]

Mimicry is way amazing and it gets to see specially in insect and plants diversity....

[@DSteerTV]

Wouldn't it be funny if there was a human enticing plant but we don't know about it because every human who has seen it has been caught by it is too embarrassed to say.

[@davec3651]

In a way this is sort of like very convincing lady boys.

[@tvdinner325]

Tucker Carlson and an M&M.

[@billydeano]

Read about this in Deleuze and Guattari for years. Finally seeing footage of it

[@IKEMENOsakaman]

Wow! What a naughty flower!

[@marcialopez9105]

I know right lol it had a threesome!!!😂😂😂

[@theblueplanet3576]

The saying is true Love is blind 😂

[@iseetheendisnear2416]

I never thought wasps could look cute before seeing this. Apparently they’ve been getting bad press, although you can’t blame people entirely for that - giant hornets and the havoc they’ve been wreaking don’t help the image of multi-stingers

[@davidripley2916]

Glad I'm not a spider. Tarantula-hawks- AAAAARGH! 🥶❕

[@anon9579]

Male wasp: Come on baby move or something

[@David.Anderson]

Man that was a lot of work

[@jamessever8936]

Finally a nature scenario where a wasp gets what's coming to it

[@bobwakefield7875]

I am in awe of the complexity of plant/insect relationships. How did the orchid develop the hinge to ensure the wasp fell backwards to the pollen sacks? The wonder of mother nature and the great creator.

[@cyruslad5462]

Lmao, nice try. Oh I'm in awe of the complexity of the worm/human relationship. How did the loa loa worm develop to live in that young childs eye, making them blind in total horror, the wonder of mother nature and your great creator.

[@philippebrehier7386]

Hi from France. Genetic diversity (to produce many shapes, colors and smelly molécules), law of averages (a lot of wasps and orchids + a lot of time to meet), "luck" and perhaps horizontal gene transfer. :-)

[@consciousobserver629]

I don't get all the hate here in this comments section. Lol The earth we live on and the living things on it are indeed mind boggling and amazing!

[@palimdragonmaster3k]

Evolution is a wonderful thing

[@cyruslad5462]

@Harrison Dudley and yet I can see and test for one and not the other🤷‍♂️

[@sundalongpatpat]

Female wasp: "Quit playing, fool! Over here."

[@peterrabbit2965]

In 20 years, Attenborough can do an episode on human sex dolls. Edit: Yep, he'll still be alive in 20 years.

[@catyear75]

That’s the cutest wasp I’ve ever seen!

[@NathanChisholm041]

We get these guys in our yard here in Australia! Theres over 800 different ones to be seen.

[@treck87]

Would love to see pictures of them if you have an Instagram or Flickr profile for plants.

[@butteryfriedwizard2219]

She's just sitting there thinking, "That hussy..."

[@BoxxerCore]

Imagine how long they had to wait for a great shot of a female wasp being snubbed, so the male wasp can ride an orchid right within eyesight of the female wasp.

[@hOodB]

Lol the wasp couldn’t get enough he came back for a 2nd time 🤣

[@sadbanana934]

For a second i thought the orchid was a praying mantis or something with how it moved

[@MicaRayan]

What did I just watched. Ha ha ha, sneaky natures wasn't it?

[@gogokittyexpress]

bugs last longer than me

[@ПавелРухлов-у2п]

Романтическая история со счастливым концом. В конце наконец-то девушка-оса встретила своего принца )))

[@fuffoon]

David Attenborough should recite the entire dictionary recorded in the highest fidelity possible so that AI can continue producing his narrations forever.

[@Placeholder476]

02:07 waiting for robots imitating human mates to be even more intoxicating than the real thing😆

[@jxgedonkeyboard9874]

To anyone reading this remember tomorrow is a fresh start.

[@lordaragorn001]

Shut up tomorrow is monday

[@vansh6038]

@@lordaragorn001 tomorrow is Sunday

[@tedkaczynskiamericanhero3916]

@@vansh6038 Time zones dummy

[@_The.Homelander]

@@lordaragorn001 💀 yeah we all hate mondays lmao

[@vansh6038]

@@tedkaczynskiamericanhero3916 I was joking It's 12:26 am Monday in my country now

[@davidripley2916]

The thing that gets me forever is: how the heck can a plant sucker animals in such a perfect way? How does it " know" how to imitate an animal so perfectly? Those orchids whose flowers resemble bees come to mind. How do they " know"? Amazing!

[@JerryMetal]

It started out as a normal orchid which was already being visited by wasps. Orchids smell nice to attract wasps anyway. So this orchid happens to evolve into smelling like something this specific male wasps is attracted to. That must be the start of a series of events which, through thousands (millions?) of generations, ended up with a mechanism which baffles us in the present day :)

[@WhatIsThis-zq4hk]

That's not how evolution works. The plant doesn't "know" anything. Mutations randomly happen. The natural selection of those mutations is NOT random. Some of those mutations attract wasps more than other orchids. Those orchids that attract more wasps to spread pollen are more likely to pass on their genes, and over many generations the orchids become more and more attractive to the wasps. Here's a potential sequence for how this exact orchid evolved: Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of years ago, a normal orchid produced offspring that had a mutation that made it slightly smell like female wasps. The orchids with this mutation attracted lots of pollinators, so this gene was quickly passed down and eventually dominated the gene pool. Some time later, these orchids that slightly smelled like wasps produced another orchid with a mutation that makes it smell even more like a female wasp, and _that_ orchid now attracted the most pollinators, so that gene was quickly spread and became dominant. This process continues each generation and mutations compound and make the orchid smell more and more like wasps. One day, one of these orchids produces an offspring that has a mutation that makes a little red bump next to the pollen. Now this orchid attracts even more wasps, because it already smells like a female wasp and the males see what looks like a female sitting on the orchid. This gene is more likely to be passed down now so it becomes dominant in the gene pool. Again, as the generations go by, more and more mutations that make the orchid look more and more like a female wasp continue to be naturally selected, because that's what the wasps fly to. One day, and orchid produces an offspring with a mutation that makes the red part curl toward the pollen when a wasp lands on it. This significantly increases the chance of the pollen (genes) being spread which makes that gene get passed down more than others, which eventually makes it dominant in the gene pool. Again, as more and more generations go by, these mutations that improve this mechanism compound on each other, and you get this complex arm after thousands/millions of years. Keep in mind, the mutations are random. Some mutations actually make the orchid less likely to attract wasps. Some mutations break the folding arm mechanism. All of the orchids that have these mutations are not able to spread their pollen (genes) that contain the DNA for these problems, so those errors are removed from the gene pool after they fail to reproduce. This is natural selection, which is not random but also not governed by a consciousness being.

[@pramath_bhat]

How do plants mimic the smell if they have no ear The looks if they have no eyes...how do they come to know... how did they evolve that way...HOW??

[@Засотнюваэропортпоехали]

It is just simple. God.

[@julesonghena6806]

There is no need of consciousness for ​species to evolve, only natural selection that is, as the names says "selection" micro evolution that can help to survival, (and mating), it's the addition of all these micro selection in the right direction wich can be called the intelligence of evolution

[@philippebrehier7386]

Hi from France. Genetic diversity, law of averages (a lot of wasps and orchids + a lot of time to meet), "luck" and perhaps horizontal gene transfer. :-)

[@wittywarbler1117]

At some point there was an orchid ancestor of the orchid in this video that by a random stroke of luck may have had a mutation that made a scent protein it produced smell kinda like lady-wasp, and so it may have attracted male wasps to spread its genetic material that accidentally raised from a simple error in its cellular machinery. Evolution is an incredibly beautiful thing, and we can actually see it happening right now with the spread of covid 19, with some variants that had random beneficial mutations outcompeting previous generations and relatives over the course of the many millions of generations the virus has gone through. No living thing chooses to evolve, it's just that traits brought about by mutation which increase fitness in an individual have a greater likelihood of reproducing and therefore spreading through a population.

[@wittywarbler1117]

@Harrison Dudley That's your opinion and you're free to think it ❤

[@MufflesTheGerbil]

I didn't expect to see actual wasps mating at the end of the video.

[@yvonnerogers6429]

Lady Wasp: “Wow. He got suckered by a flower. I dodged a bullet there.” Thanks for the video.

[@alexisaac1554]

Such butiful nature its unbelievable how it can go about its business. Love them plant

[@mahoykabusk]

Imagine you're at your girlfriend's place and you notice that her house plants have grown themselves into a sexier and better smelling version of your girlfriend

[@canny1485]

The way he says "wasp" is so hilarious😜✨

[@brucegelman5582]

The great unknown question is how the orchids through evolution came to precisely mimic the body and pheromones of the wasp.Anyone know out there?

[@tacitozetticci9308]

I guess they used to look and smell nothing like a female wasp, then at some point some mutation would look red or maybe their regular orchid scent got slightly like females pheromones for no reason at all. Some wasps would then rarely check out the orchid and that slightly increased the efficiency of the plant's pollination (with wasps rarely acting as pollinators) This in turn triggered selection. The orchids that didn't have this mutation would have their land stolen by these evolved orchids, which would spread much faster than the rest of the competition. This then accelerated evolution even more (a larger population brings more possibilities for further mutation meaning further potential for evolution) Then better shapes and better smells would attract more wasps, and today we see something really remarkable, the plant even got the pincers right.

[@tacitozetticci9308]

I mean, they wouldn't spread much faster at first, but since we're talking about a long game, even a slight advantage can make the old orchids obsolete, making them die out or evolve into something else in places where they don't lose so much to the newly mutated orchids.(Imagine these ancient orchids eventually getting in a place with no wasps, they would eventually evolve into something else and the new mutation would become useless and stop getting selected. Fast forward some million years and you'd have two completely different species of orchid coming from the same ancestor)

[@BLAQFiniks]

@@tacitozetticci9308 the randomness of mutations do not cut for me with such specific mimicry, even with all the millions of years of tweaking. There has to be something more going on with the plants, that we currently know nothing about. And I do not mean God or Aliens. Our perception of Nature is remarkably limited and hindered by our own expectations; too little ppl think outside the box to do any groundbreaking discoveries, especially with plants & fungi, that are so vastly different from animals, imho~

[@edwynn9342]

@@BLAQFiniks yeah, it's a little insane to look at this and think it's all done via random chance

[@tacitozetticci9308]

@@BLAQFiniks This works better than the real thing, so of course it's impressive, but it doesn't have to to give the plant an advantage. And a little advantage is everything you need to trigger selection. Even a simple red patch that's about the size of the female wasp is enough to make some male wasps curious. I'm talking about a 0.0..% advantage Orchids last about 2 months. Imagine the hundreds of wasps flying nearby within these two months. They'd probably fly past the regular orchids, maybe a couple would also come down on them by pure chance. But this would be pretty much the same for the orchids with the red patch (wasps would mostly ignore them), but isn't it plausible that maybe 3 or 4 wasps out of all the hundreds would come down to check the weird patch? If that's the case, that's an advantage, game on, selection triggers, then it's just a matter of time. You're looking at an extremely specialised species now, but it didn't use to be like that. I guess in the past it would pollinate in a boring way like other plants, using the wind etc. The wasp gave it a little boost at first, it was just one of the many factors to its survival, but then at some point, the plant got so good at it that its selection completely focused on the wasps. So now you look at it and you think "wow this is so specific, it would go extinct immediately without the wasps, it must have been designed by some god" But no, indeed this isn't even ideal, it's bad design. That's the most common cause of extinction. Species specialise too much then their environment changes and they can't survive anymore, while the generalists keep going. Evolution isn't always good, but it doesn't have to be, evolution is just a natural phenomenon, it doesn't have a purpose.

[@krishnad4511]

Amazing narrator, content, and ending music... wow

[@vomitingpig3683]

I wish there was a human version of this

[@nunyabiznes33]

Onahole

[@ichokedonadoritoonce7670]

Umm

[@_Stormfather]

@@nunyabiznes33 or as the non-weebs call it, a Fleshlight

[@Yiseia]

the male wasps look too cute! if only wasps weren't so sting-happy..

[@peterbernhardt4429]

Male thynnid wasps have no sting. They don't live in nests of sting-happy families. Male thynnids spend their lives drinking flower nectar so, yes, he is cute.

[@robertg6019]

I don't get how this is possible. How does a plant with no eyes know: 1) What color the wasp is 2) Height where the wasp mates 3) The engineering skills to create something like that. My understanding is that life evolves but how does something evolve into that? What was the starting point? My mind is blown.

[@tacitozetticci9308]

They look or smell nothing like a female wasp until they accidentally do (slightly) because of a small mutation. You can imagine it's just a red patch or something like that, you know, like our birthmarks. Or maybe it's a slightly weird scent. This then rarely causes some wasp to check the orchid out. The wasp steps on some pollen and then flies away. Boom, suddenly, this orchid which is exactly like its "sisters" except for a small detail, is basically more successful at life. It spreads better because of the help of these wasps acting as "biotic pollinators". Now imagine the long game, imagine these orchids reproducing SLIGHTLY better and faster because of that red patch or the weird scent, what happens if you wait 100 years? They slowly become more numerous than the old unmutated orchids. Eventually the old orchids start losing land because they don't spread fast enough (even if it's a small difference, it becomes significant in the long game) so they'd better find another place where they can still compete or they die out, losing to the new mutation. Well, now, there's a good population with lots of individuals and a lot of reproduction going on, this means even more mutations. Evolution accelerates, there's more chance to produce beneficial mutations. And that's exactly what happens, some orchids randomly get a red patch that's more or less of the same size of female wasps, this makes even more wasps come in to check. Boom, they're better, they take over. Then an orchid gets the scent right and the patch right at the same time. Boom Then the patch becomes more thick and fleshy. The cycle goes on until we get this extremely specialised modern species. The plant is stupid as a rock, it doesn't know or think anything, its ancestors just happened to be good mutants and spread better than their siblings.

[@robertg6019]

@@tacitozetticci9308 Wow thank you for your long written well thought out reply. Everything you wrote makes sense but does not explain the complicated hinge to flip over the wasp. Nature really is amazing.

[@tacitozetticci9308]

@@robertg6019 The more you go into the details the crazier it gets. Look at the upper part of the fake female wasp, for instance, the plant has evolved a couple of bumps that look like pinces (!) that's amazing. But yeah who knows what that hinge once used to be? Plants have moving parts, like when flowers blossom etc. If you think about it, the hinge also sprouts from the same point as the flowers, so maybe it is indeed a modified flower. But I'll need to look at some specific research to understand how the hinge came to be.

[@qiyinglin]

@@tacitozetticci9308 very good description. Just want to add somewhere in the progress, the wasps could also evolved and the female make themselves red to stand out, hence the plant with red colour got advantage, maybe.

[@bhogarsishyan5769]

@@tacitozetticci9308 Lets not underestimate or scoff at the intelligence of plants by saying that "The plant is stupid as a rock, it doesn't know or think anything,". The plant definitively knows, as there is evidence in some other ways wherein when eaten by herbivores the plants send stress signals which is received by other plants and they make themselves more toxic to the herbivores.

[@mitraramnarine3809]

I am 36 years old and i love listen tl his voice since i had u years

[@cathyroland340]

I didn't know Orchids could be so Violent. But it's nice to see even in the Wasp Kingdom Males think with the wrong head

[@BirdBath1]

Cathy

[@SATANFUCKSMYSOUL]

😂

[@BirdBath1]

@@SATANFUCKSMYSOUL look at my birds

[@cameronwalters3055]

It blows my mind to think how many years it took of pointless mutations before this plant mimicked a wasp. And what is even crazier, the plant does not even know the wasp exists. That is just the design that was most effective

[@indigenoussober407]

Yes, but, how did the plant know exactly what to imitate and evolve into that?

[@captain_buggles]

It doesn't, it would be a gradual process of useful coincidences over generations that steadily bring it to this point. A bias towards certain traits forms because those with those traits pass on their genes best, and so they persist without any thought required. Like first you just have a group of mostly normal flowers that coincidentally smell a little like female wasps, because even with the massive range of chemicals/odors there are, it's easier for the scents to coincidentally turn out similarly when they both have to fit similar criteria to be practical. (the scent has to be attractive, it has to use only the chemicals readily available to the organism, and it can't be too metabolically taxing to produce) Once this starts to become a little helpful, they get an advantage in spreading their genes, and become more common. From there, it slowly snowballs, because to stay competitive, successive generations have to slowly get better and better at attracting wasps, or else they could become obsolete. The higher specificity of species can also end up selected for in a similar process of small but unconscious increments, because if you have one specific kind of wasp that pollinates your kind above all else, that means you not only are less likely to be passed up for other plants, it also means you're less likely to get some other species' useless pollen that you can't do anything with. So once again, a snowball effect starts, one where the plant doesn't have to "think about" anything for these traits to slowly build on each other over time.

[@WhatIsThis-zq4hk]

That's not how evolution works. The plant doesn't "know" anything. Mutations randomly happen. The natural selection of those mutations is NOT random. Some of those mutations attract wasps more than other orchids. Those orchids that attract more wasps to spread pollen are more likely to pass on their genes, and over many generations the orchids become more and more attractive to the wasps. Here's a potential sequence for how this exact orchid evolved: Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of years ago, a normal orchid produced offspring that had a mutation that made it slightly smell like female wasps. The orchids with this mutation attracted lots of pollinators, so this gene was quickly passed down and eventually dominated the gene pool. Some time later, these orchids that slightly smelled like wasps produced another orchid with a mutation that makes it smell even more like a female wasp, and _that_ orchid now attracted the most pollinators, so that gene was quickly spread and became dominant. This process continues each generation and mutations compound and make the orchid smell more and more like wasps. One day, one of these orchids produces an offspring that has a mutation that makes a little red bump next to the pollen. Now this orchid attracts even more wasps, because it already smells like a female wasp and the males see what looks like a female sitting on the orchid. This gene is more likely to be passed down now so it becomes dominant in the gene pool. Again, as the generations go by, more and more mutations that make the orchid look more and more like a female wasp continue to be naturally selected, because that's what the wasps fly to. One day, and orchid produces an offspring with a mutation that makes the red part curl toward the pollen when a wasp lands on it. This significantly increases the chance of the pollen (genes) being spread which makes that gene get passed down more than others, which eventually makes it dominant in the gene pool. Again, as more and more generations go by, these mutations that improve this mechanism compound on each other, and you get this complex arm after thousands/millions of years. Keep in mind, the mutations are random. Some mutations actually make the orchid less likely to attract wasps. Some mutations break the folding arm mechanism. All of the orchids that have these mutations are not able to spread their pollen (genes) that contain the DNA for these problems, so those errors are removed from the gene pool after they fail to reproduce. This is natural selection, which is not random but also not governed by a consciousness being.

[@WaterspoutsOfTheDeep]

It is mind boggling because it's devoid of logic reason and science. Darwinian evolution is a mythology of magic. A plant somehow magically forms pheromones of a specific insect to pollinate it and that's supposed to be accepted as science and call it evolution? That's a fantasy. There is NO naturalistic process that can even theoretically produce such a thing as we saw in this video it's utter nonsense.

[@habilucajericho]

Wow, a BBC video I haven’t sen yet. Amazing.

[@jcsworkshop5906]

How the hell did the plant knew how the wasp looked like, to "replicate" her ??? Shape and color ? 😱 We still have to learn muuuuch about our world.

[@ThomasBomb45]

The plant doesn't have to know anything. How do giraffes know they need long necks? They don't. Their biology controls it, and adapts over millions of years through random beneficial mutations and natural selection

[@WhatIsThis-zq4hk]

That's not how evolution works. The plant doesn't "know" anything. Mutations randomly happen. The natural selection of those mutations is NOT random. Some of those mutations attract wasps more than other orchids. Those orchids that attract more wasps to spread pollen are more likely to pass on their genes, and over many generations the orchids become more and more attractive to the wasps. Here's a potential sequence for how this exact orchid evolved: Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of years ago, a normal orchid produced offspring that had a mutation that made it slightly smell like female wasps. The orchids with this mutation attracted lots of pollinators, so this gene was quickly passed down and eventually dominated the gene pool. Some time later, these orchids that slightly smelled like wasps produced another orchid with a mutation that makes it smell even more like a female wasp, and _that_ orchid now attracted the most pollinators, so that gene was quickly spread and became dominant. This process continues each generation and mutations compound and make the orchid smell more and more like wasps. One day, one of these orchids produces an offspring that has a mutation that makes a little red bump next to the pollen. Now this orchid attracts even more wasps, because it already smells like a female wasp and the males see what looks like a female sitting on the orchid. This gene is more likely to be passed down now so it becomes dominant in the gene pool. Again, as the generations go by, more and more mutations that make the orchid look more and more like a female wasp continue to be naturally selected, because that's what the wasps fly to. One day, and orchid produces an offspring with a mutation that makes the red part curl toward the pollen when a wasp lands on it. This significantly increases the chance of the pollen (genes) being spread which makes that gene get passed down more than others, which eventually makes it dominant in the gene pool. Again, as more and more generations go by, these mutations that improve this mechanism compound on each other, and you get this complex arm after thousands/millions of years. Keep in mind, the mutations are random. Some mutations actually make the orchid less likely to attract wasps. Some mutations break the folding arm mechanism. All of the orchids that have these mutations are not able to spread their pollen (genes) that contain the DNA for these problems, so those errors are removed from the gene pool after they fail to reproduce. This is natural selection, which is not random but also not governed by a consciousness being.

[@fobbitoperator3620]

Nature is so...imaginative.

[@FerCerealz]

How does the orchid know what the flightless female wasp looks like or smell like????

[@brentieXmledor]

It's called evolution.

[@bradleyswann8792]

It doesn’t. Slowly over many years, the orchids that more closely mimicked the female wasps began reproducing at a higher rate than those that did not. This mutation probably happened by accident but perhaps it was more likely because both the wasp and the orchid absorb mostly the same nutrients from the local environment. Therefore, coming up with the same pheromones or smell from similar ingredients is not too big an impossibility. Also, once the orchids developed the smell of the female wasps (and started attracting the male wasps as pollinators), then it would make sense that the orchids that most closely resembled the female wasp would have a reproductive advantage over those that looked less like her. Evolution via natural selection is quite amazing to think about… 😊

[@Mt.Berry-o7]

Well, it's not that they "know" per se. It's probably very similar to how some non poisonous animals have evolved to mimic the patterns of others that actually are. If the orchid and the wasp evolved together in the same environment it is not uncommon for one to develop some adaptation that takes advantage of the other's presence.

[@elamnabi]

Because of God :)

[@blacksand.]

@@elamnabi "God"... the answer to make everybody stop searching, finding and learning. The worst one.

[@chandrakanthsaminathan417]

Interesting. Thanks for sir. David Attenborough, background score and sound effects department. 👌