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Carrion plant fools female blowfly into laying her eggs on its flower.

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Female Australian Sheep Blowflies (Lucilia cuprina) lay their eggs on carrion and in open wounds or urine- or faeces-contaminated wool on sheep. Sheep Blowflies have an amazing sense of smell, and often arrive to lay their eggs within minutes of detecting odours attractive to them. That said, these Sheep Blowflies were fooled by the odour of rotting flesh from the flower of the African carrion plant Stapelia gigantea. The female blowfly laid her small pale eggs near the centre of the flower, condemning her offspring to death because there is nothing for the newly-hatched maggots to eat. Carrion plants use the odour of rotting flesh to attract flies to pollinate them.

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