Sometimes the lie is cynical and exploitative. Hammer orchids, of the genus Drakaea in Western Australia, peddle sex to thynnid wasps.9 The female wasp, when in the mood, climbs a blade of grass and rubs her legs to broadcast a scent appealing to males. A charmed male tracks her scent and flies a snaking pattern upwind until he finds her. He embraces her, whisks her up to the meter-high club, then down to his prearranged pad, which caters a gourmet banquet of beetle larvae. There she lays her eggs and dies. The average flower next door has no chance to seduce a male thynnid. But the genes of
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