Lapeirousia oreogena is rhinomyophilous, a
pollination syndrome referring to the pollination of flowers by flies with long mouthparts. species of
Nemestrinid fly in the genus
Prosoeca, described as one of the "most specialized systems" of coevolution among related plants. The flies hover in order to orient themselves and insert their proboscis into the tube. When the proboscis is inserted into the tube of sufficient length, as it feeds the fly grabs the tepals of the flower with all three pairs of legs through flexing its tibiae while the wings remain in motion. The pollinator fly is most active on mild and warm days from mid-afternoon and the early afternoon, and has a second flight period in the late afternoon. Flowers are visited between 3 and 5 seconds, pollen is adhered to the
frons and
thorax. It is the sole species that has pollen deposition on the frons and thorax, with other
Lapeirousia species depositing pollen on the dorsum and upper frons. In order to facilitate the most efficient transfer of pollen, flies must be just out of reach of the bottom of the nectar tube. Because of this, there exists an
evolutionary arms race between the plant and the fly selecting for longer flower tubes and longer tongued flies to facilitate more efficiency in nectar acquisition. In experiments conducted by Dennis Hansen
et al., the flowers' arrow markings were blotted out using black ink from markers which resulted in a reflectivity similar to the base colour of the tepal. Pollen dispersal was simulated using the application of dye powder. The result was that flies were able to find the flowers with equal frequency. But with the removal of the arrow markings, the pollinators were unable to insert their proboscis successfully. Only 5 out of 64 flies (7.8%) were successfully able to insert their proboscis successfully. The UV absorption of the nectar guides contradicted popular notions that nectar guides provided reflective contrast on the UV spectrum. Without arrow markings, only a single flower out of 20 was able to export dye grains, compared to 11 out of 21 which had retained their arrow markings. The fruit set of unmarked female flowers (17 out of 29) compared to marked female flowers (9 out of 34) was significantly higher. The results demonstrated a causal link between nectar guides and plant fitness for both male and female components of a plant within a natural system. Long distance attraction was not impacted significantly by the absence of nectar guides, but when pollinators were attracted, in the absence of guides, flies were left hovering above the corolla or attempting to probe the flower and finding themselves unable to. ==Distribution==