| Navigation | Genus names can be abbreviated by 3 letters, e.g. Bel peren | ||
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Ophrys blitopertha PAULUS |
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| Fam.: Orchidaceae / Orchid Family |
| Genus: Ophrys L. |
| Authors: | |||
| Hannes Franz Paulus (1943 - ), German biologist | |||
| Carl von Linné (Linnaeus, 1707 - 1777), Swedish naturalist who introduced the binary naming system for plants and animals | |||
| Etymology: | |||
| Ophrys: | Greek plant name, from ophrys = eyebrow | ||
| blitopertha: | genus name of the pollinating beetle | ||
This is the Ophrys, which is not pollinated by the males of a solitary bee, wasp, or bumblebee as others,
but by the males of a Scarab Beetle. As in the other cases also the beetles are
attracted by the pheromones, which the orchid produces.
The orchid occurs in the Cyclades (where the locus classicus is located), the Eastern-Aegean islands,
and in the Izmir / Aydin / Mugla region of southwestern Turkey.
In the Cyclades, the Eastern-Aegean islands (up to the island of Kos in the south), and southwestern Turkey,
the orchid is pollinated by the beetle Blitopertha lineolata, which occurs from the Balkans to southwestern Turkey.
As Prof. Paulus announced in a lecture in October 2025, entomologists surprisingly discovered another beetle of genus Blitopertha
exclusively on the island of Rhodes, which they described in 2024 as Blitopertha ophrysophila E. RÖSSNER, O. HILLERT, M. ULIANA, and C. ZORN.
Whether the Beetle Orchid of Rhodes, which is shown here, should therefore be considered a separate species and given a different name, too, is currently not yet clear.
'Revision of the Genus Blitopertha REITTER 1903 (Insecta: Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae: Anomalina)'
was published in VERNATE 43: 325 - 395 (2024) and is freely accessible via ResearchGate.
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Fig. 1: Ophrys blitopertha / Blitopertha Beetle Rhodos, Kattavia 28.3.2013 (Photo: Helmut Presser) |
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Fig. 2: Ophrys blitopertha / Blitopertha Beetle Rhodos, Kattavia 28.3.2013 (Photo: Helmut Presser) |
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Fig. 3: Ophrys blitopertha / Blitopertha Beetle Rhodos, Kattavia 28.3.2013 (Photo: Helmut Presser) |
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Fig. 4: Ophrys blitopertha / Blitopertha Beetle Rhodos, Kattavia 28.3.2013 (Photo: Helmut Presser) |
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Fig. 5: Ophrys blitopertha / Blitopertha Beetle Rhodos, Lardos 23.3.2005 |
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Fig. 6: Ophrys blitopertha / Blitopertha Beetle Rhodos, Lardos 23.3.2005 |
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Fig. 7: Ophrys blitopertha / Blitopertha Beetle Rhodos, Lardos 23.3.2005 |
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Fig. 8: Ophrys blitopertha / Blitopertha Beetle Rhodos, Laerma 24.3.2005 |
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Fig. 9: Ophrys blitopertha / Blitopertha Beetle Rhodos, Kattavia 25.3.2005 |
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Fig. 10: Ophrys blitopertha / Blitopertha Beetle Rhodos, Kattavia 25.3.2005 |
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Fig. 11: Ophrys blitopertha / Blitopertha Beetle Rhodos, Laerma 20.3.2019 (Photo: Christian Schlomann) |
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Contents
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Orchids
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Orchids acc. to scientific Names
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.. Relationship
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.. German Names
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.. English Names
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.. Bloom Colors
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.. Regions
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.. Photo Date
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.. Rosettes
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.. Tubers + Roots
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.. Seed Stems
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Color Variants
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Deformations
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Orchid Hybrids
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Other Plants
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| Copyright: Use of the images and texts only with author's written permission. |