Death Doubly Spun. Venus Flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, and a Spider, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
When an Insect - Spiders, too - triggers those tiny red hairs on the inner lobes of a Venus Flytrap (see inset), the Trap snaps shut capturing a tasty morsel. It'll struggle a bit but inexorably our Insect will be caught up in a tightening, barred cell. There are just enough of those triggers to ensure that it's really an insect that's alighted on that lobe and not some little piece of detritus.
Our Caught Spider was unwisely spinning her web on Venus's 'teeth'; you can see part of it on the left. Somehow Ariadne must have lost her own thread and venturing 'south' triggered those hairs. Prisoner! and soon to be dissolved for a meal by Venus's enzymatic secretions. So far so bad for her; so far so good for Venus...
Or is it really good for Lady Trap? In this case: nope. Her Trigger Hairs felt bigger than her stomach. Ariadne is rather too big for her; body parts are sticking out from Venus's prison. Those spider legs can't be covered in 'antiseptic' digestive fluid. They're open to the air and to the manifold fungi and bacteria that dispose of dead insects. Soon those body parts will turn black, and in turn they'll infect pretty Green Trap, turning her Black to Death as well. Retribution for gluttony?...
Death Doubly Spun. Venus Flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, and a Spider, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
When an Insect - Spiders, too - triggers those tiny red hairs on the inner lobes of a Venus Flytrap (see inset), the Trap snaps shut capturing a tasty morsel. It'll struggle a bit but inexorably our Insect will be caught up in a tightening, barred cell. There are just enough of those triggers to ensure that it's really an insect that's alighted on that lobe and not some little piece of detritus.
Our Caught Spider was unwisely spinning her web on Venus's 'teeth'; you can see part of it on the left. Somehow Ariadne must have lost her own thread and venturing 'south' triggered those hairs. Prisoner! and soon to be dissolved for a meal by Venus's enzymatic secretions. So far so bad for her; so far so good for Venus...
Or is it really good for Lady Trap? In this case: nope. Her Trigger Hairs felt bigger than her stomach. Ariadne is rather too big for her; body parts are sticking out from Venus's prison. Those spider legs can't be covered in 'antiseptic' digestive fluid. They're open to the air and to the manifold fungi and bacteria that dispose of dead insects. Soon those body parts will turn black, and in turn they'll infect pretty Green Trap, turning her Black to Death as well. Retribution for gluttony?...