Sticky End. Lucilia caesar, Common Greenbottle Fly, on Fork-leaved Sundew, Drosera binata, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
No escape. I watched as Lucilia's right wing got caught on the sticky 'tentacles' of this Fork-leaved Sundew. A bit of a struggle, but that only brought it into contact with more of those glue-droplets. They're composed of a sugary mucilage apparently attractive to Lucilia. When those tentacles sense a prey is 'stuck' they begin to also secrete a digestive fluid: some enzymes among which a chitinase which dissolves the chitin outer protection of Fly. At the same time the stalk-leaf of Drosera is stimulated to bend a bit to bring as many of those tentacles as possible into contact with Food. The dissolving Fly is then slow absorbed into Sundew through those same tentacles, through the plant's outer cells, and through so-called sessile glands on its surface (the latter are small and unfocused in the photo but you can make them out in particular on the left between the tentacles). The dark spots top right and bottom left are what'll be left of Lucilia, too, once the longish lunch is over.
Sticky End. Lucilia caesar, Common Greenbottle Fly, on Fork-leaved Sundew, Drosera binata, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
No escape. I watched as Lucilia's right wing got caught on the sticky 'tentacles' of this Fork-leaved Sundew. A bit of a struggle, but that only brought it into contact with more of those glue-droplets. They're composed of a sugary mucilage apparently attractive to Lucilia. When those tentacles sense a prey is 'stuck' they begin to also secrete a digestive fluid: some enzymes among which a chitinase which dissolves the chitin outer protection of Fly. At the same time the stalk-leaf of Drosera is stimulated to bend a bit to bring as many of those tentacles as possible into contact with Food. The dissolving Fly is then slow absorbed into Sundew through those same tentacles, through the plant's outer cells, and through so-called sessile glands on its surface (the latter are small and unfocused in the photo but you can make them out in particular on the left between the tentacles). The dark spots top right and bottom left are what'll be left of Lucilia, too, once the longish lunch is over.