[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXn0GSMfi_s[/video]
The pitcher plant, Nepenthes gracilis, has a springboard-like lid that flicks prey seeking shelter from heavy rain directly into its digestive juices.
Pitcher plants can inhabit nutrient-poor environments by supplementing their photosynthetic diet with insects and other prey trapped inside specialized slippery leaves or pitchers that drown victims in fluid at the base.
In N. gracilis, this mechanism is aided by rain—a thin film of water develops on the pitcher’s rim, preventing an insect’s sticky feet from contacting securely with the surface.
An international research team discovered the plant’s novel hunting technique while watching a beetle sheltering beneath a pitcher lid during a tropical rain storm in Borneo.
“Instead of finding a safe—and dry—place to rest, the beetle ended up in the pitcher fluid, captured by the plant,” explained study lead author Ulrike Bauer at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences in a press release.
“We had observed ants crawling under the lid without difficulty many times before, so we assumed that the rain played a role, maybe causing the lid to vibrate and ‘catapulting’ the beetle into the trap, similar to the springboard at a swimming pool.”
Back in the lab, the team recreated the effect of rain using a hospital drip to study the mechanism’s effect on an ant colony collecting nectar from under the lid.
They found that ants were safe before and after it “rained,” but around 40 percent became trapped while the drip was active.
The researchers discovered that wax crystals on the lower lid cause insects to slip when it is disturbed, usually by rain drops. Furthermore, the lid produces more nectar than other species, suggesting the plant lures victims into the catapult zone.
Bauer said that scientists have been trying to unravel the mysteries of these plants since the 1800s.
“The fact that we keep discovering new trapping mechanisms in the 21st century makes me curious what other surprises these amazing plants might still have in store!”
The research was published in PLoS ONE on June 13 and can be found here.
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