BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Although pollination of plants that attract flies by resembling their @entity12358 brood and food sites has been reported in several angiosperm families, there has been very little work done on the level of specificity in @entity12358 mimicry systems and the importance of plant cues in mediating such specialization. Specificity may be expected, as @entity12358 -frequenting flies often exploit different niches, which has been interpreted as avoidance of interspecific competition. Interactions between the orchid Satyrium pumilum and a local assemblage of @entity12358 flies were investigated, and the functional significance of floral traits, especially scent, tested. Pollination success and the incidence of pollinator-mediated self-pollination were measured and these were compared with values for orchids with sexual- and food-deceptive pollination systems. METHODS AND KEY RESULTS: Observations of insect visitation to animal carcasses and to flowers showed that the local assemblage of @entity12358 flies was dominated by blow flies (Calliphoridae), house flies (Muscidae) and flesh flies (Sarcophagidae), but flowers of the orchid were pollinated exclusively by flesh flies, with a strong bias towards females that sometimes deposited live larvae on flowers. A trend towards similar partitioning of @entity238 taxa was found in an experiment that tested the effect of large versus small @entity12358 quantities on @entity238 attraction. GC-MS analysis showed that floral scent is dominated by oligosulfides, @entity9838 , @entity607 and @entity104 , compounds that also dominate @entity12358 scent. Flesh flies did not distinguish between floral and @entity12358 scent in a choice experiment using olfactory cues only, which also showed that scent alone is responsible for @entity238 attraction. Pollination success was relatively high (31  5 % of flowers), but tracking of stained pollinia also revealed that a relatively high percentage (46 %) of pollen deposited on stigmas originates from the same plant. CONCLUSIONS: Satyrium pumilum selectively attracts flesh flies, probably because its relatively weak scent resembles that of the small @entity12358 on which these flies predominate. In this way, the plants exploit a specific subset of the insect assemblage associated with @entity12358 . Pollination rates and levels of self-pollination were high compared with those in other deceptive orchids and it is therefore unlikely that this mimicry system evolved to promote outcrossing.

Carrion mimicry in a South African orchid: flowers attract a narrow subset of the XXXX assemblage on animal carcasses.

@entity12358 :: ('MESH:D001474', 'Disease') :: ['carrion'] @entity607 :: ('MESH:C032538', 'Chemical') :: ['p-cresol'] @entity9838 :: ('MESH:C011917', 'Chemical') :: ['2-heptanone'] @entity238 :: ('7227', 'Species') :: ['fly'] @entity104 :: ('MESH:C030374', 'Chemical') :: ['indole']
@entity238 :: (7227,Species) :: ['fly']
