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Drosera Glanduligera Movie Analysis

Decent Essays

If an insect’s life was a horror movie, this is how it would start: Scary string music. Glistening, shiny glue drops. A close-up of a sundew plant and—KERPOW! The sudden flick of a green tentacle flinging the insect into the air. The screen goes dark. The monster in this film? Drosera glanduligera, a carnivorous sundew from southern Australia. Plants. We all eat them. You probably ate one for lunch. Insects also eat them. Sometimes plants are the ones being eaten, but every now and then, a plant gets revenge. The Australian sundew is one such plant. Thirsty insects see raindrops on the leaves of these plants. But this “water” is actually a glue-like substance used by the plant to trap the bugs! Talk about a sticky situation! You may be familiar with the carnivorous sundew plant, which sports tentacles with sticky glue drops to snag bugs for a delicious meal. But scientists dug a little deeper into the Australian version, which comes with an added punch—a non-sticky, “snap” tentacle that moves faster than the blink of an eye. When animals, mainly arthropods, land on its tentacles, D. glanduligera snaps into action, catapulting the prey into its leaf trap. Because these traps move, they are called “active” …show more content…

glanduligera and the role of snap-tentacles. Researchers grew 147 plants and fed them fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). They filmed using high-speed video cameras. They used a fine nylon thread to trigger the tentacle head and measure how long it takes to

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