Catch of the day!
A bit dark.
spiffyzha
Carnivore
So I spent like an hour yesterday watching my plants work together to hunt one particular big fly. Yes, the highlight of my Friday evening was watching a fly.
I first noticed it wandering across my dismembered pinguicula. I don't think the fly even noticed that the leaves are supposed to be sticky. I guess they're still winter leaves.
The fly next discovered my nepenthes sanguinea. I felt violated on behalf of my plant as the fly took its time crawling over it and licking its pitchers with weird-shaped mouthparts.
There was no way that nepenthes was going to catch something of that size. Really, I've never seen even my bigger nepenthes catch anything that big. So, I started nudging my sarracenia closer. Sarracenia are absolutely vicious. I knew that if anything could catch that fly, it was sure to be a sarracenia.
Instead, the fly next noticed my basil plant. I'll admit it, my basil plant is delicious, so I can hardly blame it. But -- and maybe this is a bit defeatist of me -- I thought it very unlikely that the basil plant would be able able to capture the fly. A few squirts of water though and the fly moved on to the sarracenia.
The fly got progressively more bold as it slurped the nectar from one particular pitcher.
There were several times I thought it had to be a goner, but the fly pulled off a narrow escape before returning to push its luck again.
< Four second video of an escape goes here, except apparently it doesn't. >
Although that pitcher was the fly's clear favorite, it did periodically examine the other nearby pitchers. This is the one that got the nice juicy fly in the end:
It was actually rather dramatic when it fell in. I'd never seen a sarracenia death-fall before. It happened quickly, and was accompanied by a frantic buzzing sound of descending pitch -- just for a moment, and then it was gone.
I first noticed it wandering across my dismembered pinguicula. I don't think the fly even noticed that the leaves are supposed to be sticky. I guess they're still winter leaves.
The fly next discovered my nepenthes sanguinea. I felt violated on behalf of my plant as the fly took its time crawling over it and licking its pitchers with weird-shaped mouthparts.
There was no way that nepenthes was going to catch something of that size. Really, I've never seen even my bigger nepenthes catch anything that big. So, I started nudging my sarracenia closer. Sarracenia are absolutely vicious. I knew that if anything could catch that fly, it was sure to be a sarracenia.
Instead, the fly next noticed my basil plant. I'll admit it, my basil plant is delicious, so I can hardly blame it. But -- and maybe this is a bit defeatist of me -- I thought it very unlikely that the basil plant would be able able to capture the fly. A few squirts of water though and the fly moved on to the sarracenia.
The fly got progressively more bold as it slurped the nectar from one particular pitcher.
There were several times I thought it had to be a goner, but the fly pulled off a narrow escape before returning to push its luck again.
< Four second video of an escape goes here, except apparently it doesn't. >
Although that pitcher was the fly's clear favorite, it did periodically examine the other nearby pitchers. This is the one that got the nice juicy fly in the end:
It was actually rather dramatic when it fell in. I'd never seen a sarracenia death-fall before. It happened quickly, and was accompanied by a frantic buzzing sound of descending pitch -- just for a moment, and then it was gone.
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I hope PETA doesn't see this.
coconut
Carnivorous Plant Addict
I understand that you had a very good friday evening... Dream fulfilled !
31drew31
Plant
Couldn't figure out how to link it directly in the post and the file was too large to upload apparently so here's a YouTube link.
youtube.com
Sarracenia flava rugelii gets its meal
youtube.com
DaniL
Carnivore
My VFT Akai Ryu caught itself a... nasturtium vine. The vines are growing several feet down from a railing planter. It's always breezy on my balcony, so I can imagine exactly how this happened.
Picture the nasturtium vine growing a little longer essentially overnight, swaying gently and happily in the morning breeze... just a little too close to the trap, tickling the little hairs and SNAP!
Guess it's time to shuffle my plants around.
Picture the nasturtium vine growing a little longer essentially overnight, swaying gently and happily in the morning breeze... just a little too close to the trap, tickling the little hairs and SNAP!
Guess it's time to shuffle my plants around.
