Feb 2019
I have been focusing recently on getting decent video of individual blobs which can be challenging for the pencam that I realized I forgot to post where it excels: filming large groups of blobs. The blobs (mites) are tiny and constantly moving. This makes it hard to focus on the individual, but when you have dozens, possibly hundreds, of blobs you can focus on the population’s dynamics and less on getting one to smile for the camera.
An excellent example of filming a large number of blobs took place in Sarracenia x catesbaei purpurea x flava earlier this year. This particular plant is not particularly tall but it’s pitchers are wider than my other plants. It is also hooded, so I can’t drop the pencam down the top like I do with the other plants. One pitcher of S. catesbaei x purpurea x flava split near it’s top and that gave a perfect natural entry point for the pencam.
The videos below were recorded in late Feb. 2019, but the experiment began in Dec. 2018. I found a giant Texas sized roach (it died of natural causes) and put it into the pitcher. I was hoping that a large amount of food in the pitcher would support a large population of commensals to eat it. And it seemed to have worked. The population of blobs exploded in the 2 months after the roach was added.
The following video, taken Feb 20 2019, shows how well the pencam captures an overview of what's happening inside the pitcher plant. The pitcher water is alive with a maelstrom of mite mayhem. Pretty much anything white and moving are mites on the move. (There is another critter shows up around 6 min. I’ve been calling this animal a “skipper” because it seems to only zip around on the surface or above the water. I have yet to identify it)
A little context would be helpful. Usually, it's obvious what the prey item is (a fly or wasp), but in this case the prey is a 2 inch roach that has been worked over by the blobs for 2 months. It's a little hard to recognize. It is the large brown mass in the center of the pitcher (and more below the surface). The roach’s wings are still along the back wall. The rest of the body has slid into the water for the mites to feast on. Gross.
I didn’t record this freehand. My hand is too shaky. Unfortunately, this pitcher is too big to use the stand. So I went all in and spent a ton of money on a tripod. Just kidding. I’m too cheap. I used a tripod designed to hold a cell phone. It grabbed and held the stand rather nicely, and it only cost 1.25$ at epic dollar. Cheap and effective.
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