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Research Papers

Darwin’s bee-trap: The kinetics of Catasetum, a new world orchid

Charles C. Nicholson, James W. Bales, Joyce E. Palmer-Fortune and Robert G. Nicholson

volume 3 | issue 1

january 2008
Pages: 19 - 23

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The orchid genera Catasetum employs a hair-trigger activated, pollen release mechanism, which forcibly attaches pollen sacs onto foraging insects in the New World tropics. This remarkable adaptation was studied extensively by Charles Darwin and he termed this rapid response “sensitiveness”. Using high speed video cameras with a frame speed of 1000fps, this rapid release was filmed and from the subsequent footage, velocity, speed, acceleration, force and kinetic energy were computed.

Authors

Charles C. Nicholson

Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York USA

James W. Bales

The Edgerton Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts USA

Joyce E. Palmer-Fortune

Department Of Physics, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts USA

Robert G. Nicholson

Smith College Botanic Garden, Northampton, Massachusetts USA