Different Prey for Different Pitchers
- Scott M
- Apr 25, 2019
- 1 min read
Dec 17 2018
The giant roach in the bugbat wins for the largest bug my traps have caught. It seems worthwhile to see what’s happening in the other traps for comparison. In the neighboring bugbat pitchers are an assortment of prey. And these aren’t pitchers from a different bugbat, these are pitchers of the same individual bugbat. (C,D,E&F on this picture)
So in one pitcher is a giant roach and no ants.(Bugbat Pitcher D)
and don't forget the fly that was under the giant roach.
In this bugbat pitcher there is a bug (earwig?) fighting the blobs. Again, no ants. And this is the first pitcher I looked into with the pencam. This was the first time I observed the ant ladder back in Aug.
In another bugbat pitcher, a fly has been trapped. Again, no ants.
A fly is trapped in another bugbat.
We finally find the ants in this bugbat pitcher. There ants are everywhere below the Zone 2-3 boundary.
20181217_145601.mp4
So how is it that there would be ants in one trap but none in the others? I could see different pitchers attracting different prey, but how is there a difference among pitchers o the same individual plant.
Puzzling.
Meanwhile in other pitcher plants…
A lone fly is trapped in a Judith Hindle pitcher and nothing but insect carcasses in another. No ants.
In the S. Leucophylla, no ants only dead ladybugs
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