How do beetles and flies pollinate flowers that imitate carrion?

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A honeybee collects pollen from the yellow stamens of a pink and cream honeysuckle flower against a blurred green background. — Pollination Common carder bumblebee (*Bombus pascuorum*) pollinating a honeysuckle (*Lonicera* species) flower.

Certain flowers and fungi utilize mimicry to attract dung beetles and carrion flies by imitating the scent of rotting flesh or dung, which these insects naturally seek for egg deposition.1

In some carrion flowers, the deception is so effective that blowflies attempt to lay their eggs on the plant. Other species, such as the cuckoopint, employ sophisticated mechanical traps to ensure pollination. These plants use heat to vaporize and spread their odor, attracting insects that land on a slippery sheath and slide into a chamber. Spines prevent the insect from escaping until it has deposited pollen on female flowers and received a fresh coating of pollen from male flowers, at which point the trap releases the visitor.1

Similarly, stinkhorn mushrooms attract insects to their spore-laden slime. The insects consume the material, and the spores are later dispersed through the insect's feces.1