Carnivorous Plants and Their Prey

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of the trap. An osmotic reaction occurs as water follows the movement of the ions (16, 24). Osmotic changes in the bladder force the door open thereby creating a vacuum that sucks the prey inward much like the action of a predatory fish as it gulps in a smaller fish (16, 58). Lobster-pot and Combination Traps Less common trap types occur in several dozen species of carnivorous plants. About thirty-five species of West African and eastern South American Genlisea in the family Lentibulariaceae use a lobster pot trap to capture prey passively (1, 12, 15). Lobster pot traps allow insect prey to enter but the design is such that they are confounded in their attempts to find an exit (1, 12). In the Genlisea, aquatic protozoan prey are allowed to move into the trap but inward pointing hairs inhibit the organism from retracing its path. In hope of reclaiming its freedom, the prey keep moving towards the digestive zone of the plant (16). Several species of carnivorous plants use a combination of trap types. The parrot pitcher plant (Sarracenia psittacina) of the southeastern United States normally captures prey in pitfall traps. When its bog or pond edge habitats flood, however, inundated S. psittacina pitchers act as lobster pot-traps to take aquatic prey (1, 12). The tropical pitcher plant Nepenthes inermis, similarly, uses pitfall traps but also includes a sticky flypaper-like covering on its interior walls (12). See Table 2 for a breakdown of carnivorous genera and their mode of prey attraction, capture, and digestion. Table 2 – Presence (+) or absences (-) of adaptations for active prey attraction, capture, and digestion in genera of carnivorous plants. In Givnish et al. (15). Genera (no. sp.) Prey attraction Prey capture Prey digestion Trap type Brocchinia (1) + passive - pitfall Heliamphora (6) + passive - pitfall Darlingtonia (1) + passive - pitfall Sarracenia (9) + passive +/- pitfall Cephalotus (1) + passive + pitfall Nepenthes (71) + passive + pitfall Genlisea (35) - passive + lobsterpot Drosera (90) - + + flypaper Drosophyllum (1) + + + flypaper Byblis (2) - + + flypaper 22
Pinguicula (35) - + + flypaper Triphyophyllum (1) - + + flypaper Dionaea (1) + + + spring-trap Aldrovanda (1) - + + spring-trap Utricularia (280) -/+ + + spring-trap Biovularia (1) - + + spring-trap Polypompholyx (2) - + + spring-trap Prey Items The type of prey taken by carnivorous plants varies from species to species. Some carnivorous species are generalists while others specialize on a very limited diet or even just one prey species. Carnivorous plants, in general, consume a wide variety of prey items, from protists to insects to vertebrates, and some may even be partially ‘herbivorous’ (2, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15). Insects appear to be the most common type of prey across the carnivorous plant world. In Roridula, Anderson and Midgley (20) discovered insect prey represented by nineteen different species in four orders. The bromeliad Brocchinia reducta was found to have thirty-one families of insect prey from six orders (15). Similarly, the North American pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea contained prey from twenty-nine families of insects and six orders. (8). Cresswell (49), in a study of S. purpurea, identified insects from thirteen orders and forty-nine families trapped within pitchers. The major orders represented by the aforementioned examples include Coleoptera, Collembola, Diptera, Hemiptera, Homoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, and Orthoptera (8, 15, 20). Insects are not the only types of prey taken by carnivorous plants. Aquatic carnivorous plants like Aldrovanda and Utricularia may feed on the larvae of insects like mosquitoes but they also consume daphnia, rotifers, and even small, immature fish (14). The genus Genlisea may have a diet that lacks insects entirely as there is evidence these carnivorous plants specialize on protozoans (12, 14). Other invertebrate prey items recovered from carnivorous plants include annelids, centipedes, millipedes, crustaceans, slugs, snails, mites, spiders, and even slime molds 23
Page 1 and 2: Carnivorous Plants and Their Prey,
Page 3 and 4: Carnivorous Plant Floral Design…
Page 5 and 6: capture prey; many others passively
Page 7 and 8: absorption of prey tissues near the
Page 9 and 10: order to obtain the nutrients (20).
Page 11 and 12: succession leads to woody plant gro
Page 13 and 14: Sticky leaf Rosette Drosera rotundi
Page 15 and 16: expense of carnivorous traps. A stu
Page 17 and 18: prey capture are generally recogniz
Page 19 and 20: The eminent end to the pitfall path
Page 21: Utricularia, and Polypompholyx (1).
Page 25 and 26: such as butterflies, moths, flies,
Page 27 and 28: standing erect. Mature pitchers of
Page 29 and 30: 67). Production of blooms when clim
Page 31 and 32: hindered in their approach by direc
Page 33 and 34: ultraviolet patterns to attract pol
Page 35 and 36: plants (26, 41, 44, 45). Some carni
Page 37 and 38: plants, the loss of potential polli
Page 39 and 40: Table 3 - Examples of plant-animal
Page 41 and 42: While proteolytic bacteria may be c
Page 43 and 44: larvae within pitchers (38, 77). Al
Page 45 and 46: elease of nitrogen to the carnivoro
Page 47 and 48: S. darlingtoniae robs the carnivoro
Page 49 and 50: amounts of time traversing the leav
Page 51 and 52: insect prey (2, 10). Some ants are
Page 53 and 54: pitchers. Upon discovering a pitche
Page 55 and 56: Although carnivorous plants stand t
Page 57 and 58: 3. Conant, R. and J.T. Collins. 199
Page 59 and 60: 40. Thoren, L.M., J. Tuomi, et al.
Page 61 and 62: 72. Anderson, B. J.J.Midgley, and B

Carnivorous Plants and Their Prey

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