Editing 1259: Bee Orchid

{{comic
| number    = 1259
| date      = September 2, 2013
| title     = Bee Orchid
| image     = bee orchid.png
| titletext = In sixty million years aliens will know humans only by a fuzzy clip of a woman in an Axe commercial.
}}

==Explanation==
Megan is explaining the evolutionary [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/1/l_011_02.html phenomenon] of mimicry of female insects which fools male insects into trying to mate with the flower ({{w|pseudocopulation}}). This causes the pollen of the flower to stick to the male bee, who may make the same mistake with another flower, allowing for pollination.

This particular orchid mimicked the solitary bee ''{{w|Eucera}}'', which now only pollinates it in the Mediterranean (the bee isn't really extinct yet). This may eventually lead to the extinction of the orchid due to lack of reproduction. In most areas where it grows, the orchid is using a method of {{w|self-pollination}}, which can be detrimental to the genetic vitality of the species as it is a form of in-breeding.

Photographs of ''{{w|Ophrys apifera}}'':

[[File:Ophrys apifera flower1.jpg|x250px]] [[File:Bee orchids, Aller Brook Local Nature Reserve - geograph.org.uk - 833516.jpg|x250px]]

Female ''Eucera (Synhaolonia)'' guarding nests (left) and male ''Eucera'' (right):

[[File:Synhalonia nest 1.jpg|x200px]] [[File:Apidae - Eucera sp. (male).JPG|x200px]]

In a similar way, some plants depend on animal species now extinct, but as the dependency was not about pollination but about spreading seeds across the land, those plant species can still last millions of years after the animal species extinction. For instance, [http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/12/04/avocado-ghosts-of-evolution/ it’s the case of the avocado].

The comic plays on the subject of levels of indirectness of memory or knowledge representation. The female bee is extinct, remembered only by the male bee's perception of her; the male bee is also extinct, but its memory of the female is preserved in the orchid's shape; the orchid, due to self-pollination, is nearing extinction, but the memory of the female bee is now preserved by Beret Guy's memory of the orchid, remembering the male bee's memory of her.

The title text culminates this theme by invoking the idea that some day human beings will, likewise, be extinct, and aliens will be able to learn about us through the distorted and faded representations of ourselves that we leave behind - {{w|Axe (brand)|Axe}} commercials which, like the orchid, present an idealized form to deceptively attract mates. We are left to speculate whether these aliens will be able to construct, somehow, through three levels of indirectness (the human representation, the orchid's representation and the male bee's perception) any memory of the female Eucera, and, if so, how distorted a view of the bee it will be.

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy and Megan are walking through a wood.]
:Megan: There are these orchids whose flowers look like female bees. When males try to mate with them, they transfer pollen.

:[Megan kneels next to a flower.]
:Megan: This orchid - ''Ophrys Apifera'' - makes flowers, but no bees land on them because the bee it mimics went extinct long ago.

:[Megan stands.]
:Megan: Without its partner, the orchid has resorted to self-pollinating, a last-ditch genetic strategy that only delays the inevitable. Nothing of the bee remains, but we know it existed from the shape of this flower.

:[They walk on past the flower.]
:Megan: It's an idea of what the female bee looked like to the male bee...
:Megan: ...as interpreted by a plant.
:Beret Guy: Wow, so...

:[We see a full-colour painting of an orchid flower. It has purple-pink petals on a mottled grey background, along with the bee-like parts. It's quite a realistic painting.]
:...the only memory of the bee is a painting by a dying flower.

:[The flower is alone in a panel.]

:[Beret Guy walks back on screen.]

:[Beret Guy kneels down next to it.]
:Beret Guy: I'll remember your bee, orchid. I'll remember you.

:[Beret Guy walks off-panel again.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Bees]]
[[Category:Aliens]]