A new orchid species expands Darwin’s predicted pollination guild in Madagascar

Summary

The world-renowned pollination system of the long-spurred orchid Angraecum sesquipedale Thouars and the long-tongued hawkmoth Xanthopan praedicta (Rothschild & Jordan, 1903), from Madagascar, is the best-known example of the predictive power of evolutionary ecology^1,2, yet its actual degree of specialisation remains poorly described due to the incompleteness of the pollination record of X. praedicta. Here, we describe another species from Madagascar, an angraecoid orchid distantly related to the genus Angraecum Bory, that has evolved these extreme adaptations to a single pollinator after a pollinator shift. It bears the longest spur of any flowering plant, relative to flower diameter, reaching 33 cm. The discovery of a species with such an exceptionally long spur is a rare event, the most recent dating to 1965³. This novelty is described here as Solenangis impraedicta (Figure 1A–F) and discussed in a phylogenetic framework. Its conservation status is assessed as Endangered.