Ant-Eating Plants Devise Clever Means Of Trapping More Prey
Borneo’s pitcher plants, which rely on eating insects for their survival, oddly shut down their slick trapping mechanisms for up to 8 hours each day.
Logic would seem to dictate that if a plant depends upon eating ants to sustain itself, it would want to take advantage of every opportunity that presents.
Yet, Borneo’s pitcher plants shut down their slick trapping mechanisms for up to 8 hours each day.
When active, they catch their meals by using nectar to attract ants to their slippery surfaces.
When the ant gets a little too close to the sweet bait it slides right into the plant’s trap.
Dry surfaces, which persist throughout the duration of the shutdown, do not elicit similarly successful results.
Scientists were curious when they learned that the plant was passing up meals.
After field observations and a fair bit of trap manipulation, the researchers eventually pieced together what was going on.
When ants hunt they send out a scout first. Once that single insect comes
Logic would seem to dictate that if a plant depends upon eating ants to sustain itself, it would want to take advantage of every opportunity that presents.
Yet, Borneo’s pitcher plants shut down their slick trapping mechanisms for up to 8 hours each day.
When active, they catch their meals by using nectar to attract ants to their slippery surfaces.
When the ant gets a little too close to the sweet bait it slides right into the plant’s trap.
Dry surfaces, which persist throughout the duration of the shutdown, do not elicit similarly successful results.
Scientists were curious when they learned that the plant was passing up meals.
After field observations and a fair bit of trap manipulation, the researchers eventually pieced together what was going on.
When ants hunt they send out a scout first. Once that single insect comes