Identifying deceit system of orchidaceae resembling insect structures and preferences

Orchidacea family is known as the most species rich plant. According to Nilsson (1992), there are more or less than 25 000 species of orchids around the world. lnfact, most species in this plant family are animal-pollinated. However, past studies has proved that this family also used other ways to attract its pollinators. Most previous studies were done on insects used deceit system by resembling plants for their survival. But different with this study, which was conducted as the purpose to identify deceit system of plant, specifically orchid that resembling insects for their survival. Many studies had proven that most orchid displayed many types of deceit which helps this Orchidacea family to attract more pollinators when pollinators had visited the orchid by mistakenly think that the orchid flower is one of their own species. This study was not only concern on the characteristics of orchid flower, but also the way insects see things through the compund eye. Thus, macro lens had been used while conducting this study which involved observations in field. Previous study had proved that macro lens had the abilities of allowing people to see things in short distance but wide angle as seen through compound eye. This study involved image collections of species under Orchidacea family at several locations which involved Orchid Nursery and Orchid Garden at Taman Kinabalu, Orchid Garden at area of Poring Botanical Garden and also Hybrid Orchid Garden at Agricultural Park, Tenom. Collected images were then proceeded with technique of redrawing, species identification and analysis of deceit identified in Orchidacea family. The result of this study found that certain features displayed by orchids showed a high potential of deceit. Features displayed by orchids such as the spots on petals had manipulated insects' preferences when resembling insects' eggs, food and also insects' oviposition site. Since compound eye is very sensitive to UV light, orchids under UV spectrum showed resembling the shape of insects' body and compound eye as observed in both native and hybrid orchids. To conclude, orchids displayed deceit system by resembling insects' structures and preferences for the purpose to increase rate of successful cross pollinations among species as well as to increase their population diversity.