Easy prey

Why go to the trouble of setting traps to catch insects when such traps are already ready-made? And if possible, by a plant, so as to avoid being attacked!

We’ve already seen a few instances of more or less chance opportunism on the part of spiders with regard to pitcher-trap carnivorous plants (Nepenthes and Sarracenia). Here’s another case, again involving a spider, which this time isn’t afraid to wander across the sticky leaves of Pinguicula…

Early in the morning, this charming pink spider, measuring 3 mm, was moving with relative ease across the mucilaginous glands, on the lookout for easy prey (trapped in the sticky substance, after all!) for its breakfast. It was just as well: the few insects that were there – ‘gnats’ (even if the term isn’t very scientific, we can always call them fruit flies) – were just the right size to feed her.

So she helped herself!