Re: Insect in pitcher dissappeared!

From: Rand Nicholson (writserv@nbnet.nb.ca)
Date: Fri Jun 11 1999 - 23:43:59 PDT


Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 11:43:59 +0500
From: Rand Nicholson <writserv@nbnet.nb.ca>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg2129$foo@default>
Subject: Re: Insect in pitcher dissappeared!

Hi Amy:
,
>I put a small grasshopper in my S. Purpurea. For a
>moment, it wiggled around, but then it dove down to
>the bottom and dissappeared!!! What could have
>happened? I don't see it now, it is just gone? Is this
>ok, or should I do something?
>Please help me with this question,

You should do nothing.

Two things could have happened here. Grasshoppers can be really quick. In
that case it might have jumped out of the pitcher and flown away while you
blinked.

>then it dove down to the bottom and dissappeared!!!

I doubt that it took a dive. If it did fall into the fluid, it probably
would be still there at the bottom.

The species S. purpurea that I grow have very big pitchers. If the critter
sank to the bottom of a pitcher, then your plant is going "yum!".

Contrary to some messages that have been posted to this list, S.purpurpea
purpurpea is a most efficient and deadly CP. In the wild, the traps are
often choked with wasps and large flies. This also happens on my deck with
my 12" plus S. purp. in the city, nowhere near a bog. Native North
Americans have long used the pitcher contents for protien supplements and
medicinal purposes. If S. purpurpea is not trapping, then I would look to
the environment in which it is grown for a reason, not the plant, which has
successfully evolved through a few million years and knows what it is doing.

Kind Regards,

Rand

Rand Nicholson <writserv@nbnet.nb.ca>
Maritime New Brunswick, Canada, Zone 5b (starting heat wave)



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 17:31:59 PST