Are they mushrooms, common sea slugs, or sea anemones? Many people may struggle to determine whether these organisms are terrestrial or marine in origin based on the external morphology alone. In fact, the two species presented here belong to Thismia (Thismia hexagona var grandiflora and Thismia abei), a genus of non‐photosynthetic plants commonly known as fairy lanterns. Under what selective pressures have their peculiar flowers evolved? Botanists and evolutionary ecologists believe that flower diversity results from the adaptations of plants to specific pollinators. However, the types of insects that pollinate fairy lanterns remain a mystery. Given the extreme rarity of Thismia species, half of which have not been rediscovered after their description as new species, it is reasonable that the observations of pollinators are highly infrequent!

On Kozu Island, Japan, we were fortunate to observe frugivorous fungus gnats (Bradysia atracornea) visiting T abei. The flowers emitted a notably strong, musty odor. Our observations may provide clues to solve the riddle of the oddly shaped flowers of fairy lanterns: perhaps the plants employ a mushroom‐like appearance and odor to attract fungus gnats as a cheating strategy. Do fairy lanterns indeed mimic mushrooms to exploit the innate preference of the frugivorous pollinators toward mushrooms? If so, which type of mimicry (visual or olfactory) serves as a stronger attractant? These questions warrant further research.

它们是蘑菇，普通海参还是海葵？许多人可能仅凭外部形态就很难确定这些生物是陆地生物还是海洋生物。实际上，这里介绍的两个物种都属于Thismia（Thismiahexagona var grandiflora和Thismia abei），这是一种非光合作用植物，通常被称为仙女灯笼。它们的奇特花朵在什么选择性压力下进化？植物学家和进化生态学家认为，花的多样性是植物适应特定传粉媒介的结果。但是，为仙女灯笼授粉的昆虫类型仍然是个谜。鉴于Thismia极为稀有 物种，其中一半在被描述为新物种后尚未被重新发现，因此授粉媒介的观察极少发生是有道理的！

在日本的Kozu岛上，我们很幸运地观察到食豆类真菌（Bradysia atracornea）访问了T abei。花散发出强烈的霉味。我们的观察结果可能为解决奇形怪状的灯笼灯笼之谜提供了线索：也许这些植物采用蘑菇状外观和气味来吸引真菌fun作为作弊策略。童话般的灯笼真的模仿蘑菇来利用节食的传粉者对蘑菇的天生偏好吗？如果是这样，哪种模仿（视觉或嗅觉）可以作为更强的引诱剂？这些问题值得进一步研究。