Venus Flytrap caught a Crane Fly

 

A Crane Fly caught in a Venus Flytrap

    Here's a picture I took of a Crane Fly caught in a Venus Flytrap.  A Crane Fly, which is also mistakenly called a Mosquito Eater (it doesn't eat mosquitos) resembles an oversized male mosquito.  They do not and cannot bite, because they have a blunt proboscis used for feeding on plant nectar.  This Crane Fly was attract to the sugary "nectar" that is secreted on the inner surface of the trap.  The Crane fly is much larger than the traps, but it's abdomen triggered a trap.  You can see it's head, thorax and end of it's abdomen sticking outside of the trap.  The trap is strong enough to hold the Crane fly so that it couldn't escape. 

A Crane Fly caught in a Venus Flytrap

A Crane Fly caught in a Venus Flytrap

    Now the gruesome part.  The Flytrap will secret enzymes and acids to dissolve the abdomen into a nutrient-rich liquid.  The plant will absorb the liquid getting essential nutrients like nitrogen, leaving only the indigestible exoskeleton behind.  This should be an interesting sight (in about 10 days) when the trap reopens exposing the digested exoskeleton and the undigested parts outside of the trap.

A Crane Fly caught in a Venus Flytrap with other traps open and ready!

Happy Halloween!

 I hope your night is a treat and not a trap!

Silhouette of spider caught in a Venus Fly Trap

Two Bees, One Coming and The Other Going!

Venus Flytrap 'Mammoth' with a Bee trapped halfway, with it's head in.

Venus Flytrap 'Mammoth' with a Bee trapped halfway, with it's head out.

    This Venus Flytrap 'Mammoth' has caught two bees. Although the traps are pretty good size, it only trapped half of a bee at a time. The first bee was trapped with it's head in the trap and about five weeks later the second bee was trapped with it's head out of the trap.

Venus Flytrap 'Mammoth' before it trapped the Bees

    Here is a picture of Venus flytrap 'Mammoth" before it trapped the Bees.

Venus Flytrap, Blooming and Digesting!

Venus Flytrap

    This Venus Flytrap has five bloom stalks, and all blooms are well above the traps.  Yesterday I saw a bee visiting the blooms, and it stayed safely away from the traps below.

Two Bugs In A Venus Flytrap

    A double helping?  This backlit picture of Venus flytrap shows the silhouette of two bugs in the trap.  I doubt the trap caught two live bugs at the same time.  Most likely one is the exoskeleton from a previous capture and it may have helped attract the second bug.  So, I would say this trap is digesting a "second helping"!

 

A Tale of Two Caterpillars

 So I saw the tell tale signs of fritillary caterpillars on my passion flower vine.  There were lots of little holes in the leaves, so they were just getting started.  Once they get going, they can defoliate the plant quickly!  I began looking for the culprits.  I found a bunch of eggs that I removed, but only one small caterpillar.  I also found a white/beige caterpillar that I didn’t recognize and it was very wiggly.  Instead of the usual squish method, I thought I’d feed them to my Venus flytrap!  I dropped the Gulf Fritillary caterpillar into a trap and it closed instantly.  The fly trap did its job and started digesting the caterpillar.  A few days later, the trap opened and you can see the remains.

The remains of a Gulf Fritillary cater pillar in a Venus Flytrap

As I mentioned above, the unidentified white/beige caterpillar was very wiggly so I took care to drop it into the center of a trap.  It closed very quickly and I could see the silhouette of the caterpillar moving in the trap.  I came back an hour later intending to take a picture of the trap with the silhouette of the caterpillar.  But instead, I found this round hole.  The caterpillar had eaten its way out of the trap and escaped!

A closed Venus Flytrap with a hole where an unidentified caterpillar escaped!

The Venus Flytrap Eats!

 One of my Venus Flytrap's has digested a spider, and the trap has reopened.  All that is left is the spider's exoskeleton.  A trap/leaf will consume 1 to 3 bugs before dying off.

Venus Flytrap with the Exoskeleton of a Spider .

Venus Flytrap with the Exoskeleton of a Spider .

The trap with the exoskeleton is in the lower lefthand corner.  The trap in the top of the picture is a new leaf and the trap will open soon.

Venus Flytrap

My Venus Flytrap is ready to eat a bug!  Where can I find and insect cam!

Venus Flytrap

Venus Flytrap Bloom

 My Venus Flytrap has been doing well.  Now that I have had it about 3 months, it is sending up a bloom just before it goes dormant.  It's interesting how the Venus Flytrap attracts pollinators to its flowers and other insects to it's leaves/traps!  North Carolina State university did a study and found that Venus Flytraps don't eat the insects that pollinate them. 

Venus Flytrap with bloom

Venus Flytrap bloom

Venus Flytrap