O. vetula was first described by Risso from Alpes-Maritimes, France in 1844. It is one of the commoner members of the 13 strong O. tetraloniae group which take their name from the tetralonia genus of bee's that are the most significant pollinators of this family of Ophrys. The name vetula means elderly and refers to the specular pattern which was thought to resemble that of an old man. Clearly in 1844, imaginations were more vivid ?
Its home is the sub mediterranean area of south eastern France and northern Italy. It's full range is not known with any certainty but it probably gets little further east than Liguria.
Unlike other members of this group, identification is not too difficult, even though there are several other similar Ophrys species whose ranges overlap. Two important features of the O. tetraloniae group are the tendencies to have a broader and more complete band of submarginal hair than similar species such as
O. fuciflora and also the fact that they are late flowerers - late May to late July in the case of O. vetula.
The major recognition feature with O. vetula however, is its propensity to appear distinctly scolopaxoid
and this feature can be seen in several of the illustrations though particularly with that opposite. The
flowers depicted in pictures 2 and 5 are newly opened and have not yet fully recurved into the complete
scolopaxoid form. The sepals are proportionately larger than most other of the group members.
All the photograph's are from the Ecrins National Park near Grenoble and date from the last week of May.
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