The rush-like plant Ceratocaryum argenteum lives in the fire-prone Cape Province of South Africa, and its seeds must be buried to avoid incineration. Rather than enlist a small mammal like a squirrel to do so, this plant has adapted to instead deceive dung beetles into dispersing and burying its seeds. It has been able to do so by evolving seeds (pictured on right) that are not only spherical in shape and colored like the pellets of local ungulates (benteboks, elands, etc.; pictured on left) But they smell like dung too! The seeds emit volatile chemicals that give them that distinct bouquet of excrement that the dung beetles find so very attractive. Notably, when researchers tracked the buried seeds, no damage or eggs were found on them, indicating that the duped dung beetles do not gain any benefit from moving and burying the seeds. What a cleverly deceptive plant!
You can check out a dung beetle in action here!
--Benjamin Blackman