Carnivorous
plants are seen as the ultimate bug eating machines, but their entice,
entrap and devour technique only works on some bugs, and those who are
immune to their tricks feed on them instead.But even weirder than
the eaters of carnivorous plants are those industrious insects who
develop a symbiotic relationship with the killer plant- like the
Camponotus schmitzi
ants that live on the Bornean pitcher plant:
An insect-eating pitcher plant teams up with
ants to prevent mosquito larvae from stealing its nutrients, according
to research published May 22 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Mathias Scharmann and colleagues from the University of Cambridge and the University Brunei Darussalam.
The
unusual relationship between insect-eating pitcher plants and ants
that live exclusively on them has long puzzled scientists. The Camponotus schmitzi ants live only on one species of Bornean pitcher plants (Nepenthes bicalcarata),
where they walk across slippery pitcher traps, swim and dive in the
plant's digestive fluids and consume nectar and prey that fall into the
trap. Though the benefits to the ants are obvious, it has been harder
to tell what exactly the plants gain. However, plants that harbor the
insects grow larger than those that do not, suggesting a mutualistic
relationship exists between the two.
Here's a related video from
AntsCanada
showing what happened when he introduced pitcher plants to a terrarium
teeming with yellow ants. He thought it would help thin the population,
but the colony had other ideas...
No comments:
Post a Comment