O. untchjii was first described as a subspecies from the Istrian peninsula, Croatia by Shultze in 1907. It is a member of the O. tetraloniae group of Ophrys and is named after Karl Untchj, the eminent Croatian botanist who first collected the plant in 1907.

This species was once thought to be endemic to Croatia, with a distribution in Istria, the larger islands of the Kvarner archipelago and localised areas of the central Dalmation coast around Split. It is now however known from some sites in northern Italy. Along with O. istriensis, it is the first of the Croation fuciflorid species to flower in early April, at least two weeks before O. medea and perhaps a month before O. dinarica and O. tetraloniae. O. untchjii has however a long flowering period, which spans that of its cousins. A consequence of this being frequent hybridization, thus producing plants that will often exhibit some features more familiar with other species, particularly with appendage size. petal shape and basal swelling size. Some of the plants depicted here reflect this.

In its typical form it has a green perianth, an attribute which although once thought to be unique amongst Istrian species, is now known to be shared with O. istriensis. The sepals can occasionally be white and in southern Istria, sometimes pink. The petals are triangular and short. The protuberences are not particularly well developed and the appendage is conspicuously large, bright yellow and forward pointing. The flowers themselves are large and the lip margins hairy, reminiscent of O. bornmuelleri . The plant, although not tall (up to 30cms) is quite robust.

The pictures are all from Istria, dating from the first week of May.