“It’s a stinky feast! Blowflies just can’t resist the attraction of the orchid. Captured during an orchid pollination observation in Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia, this photograph shows the orchid flowers of <i>Bulbophyllum lasianthum</i> Lindl surrounded by flies. During anthesis, these attractive purplish-red flowers emit a strong foul odour similar to that of carrion. The predominant species of flies found visiting and pollinating <i>B. lasianthum</i> was <i>Chrysomya megacephala</i> Fabricius (Calliphoridae: Diptera), commonly known as blowflies. Both male and female blowflies are capable of pollinating the flowers of 
<i>B. lasianthum</i>. Some of the flies shown here actually have pollinia stuck on their backs as they happily work the flowers! Various fly species are extremely attracted to the flowers due to the stench as well as the carrion appearance of the flowers.”
Ong Poh Teck (Forest Research Institute Malaysia)
CC BY 2.0
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6785/13/6">BMC Ecology image competition: the winning images</a>. <i>BMC Ecology</i> 2013, <b>13</b>:6  <a href="//doi.org/10.1186/1472-6785-13-6" class="extiw" title="doi:10.1186/1472-6785-13-6">doi:10.1186/1472-6785-13-6</a>