Fenestration: a window of opportunity for carnivorous plants
#MMPMID24789140
Schaefer HM
; Ruxton GD
Biol Lett
2014[]; 10
(4
): 20140134
PMID24789140
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A long-standing but controversial hypothesis assumes that carnivorous plants
employ aggressive mimicry to increase their prey capture success. A possible
mechanism is that pitcher plants use aggressive mimicry to deceive prey about the
location of the pitcher's exit. Specifically, species from unrelated families
sport fenestration, i.e. transparent windows on the upper surfaces of pitchers
which might function to mimic the exit of the pitcher. This hypothesis has not
been evaluated against alternative hypotheses predicting that fenestration
functions to attract insects from afar. By manipulating fenestration, we show
that it does not increase the number of Drosophila flies or of two ant species
entering pitchers in Sarracenia minor nor their retention time or a pitcher's
capture success. However, fenestration increased the number of Drosophila flies
alighting on the pitcher compared with pitchers of the same plant without
fenestration. We thus suggest that fenestration in S. minor is not an example of
aggressive mimicry but rather functions in long-range attraction of prey. We
highlight the need to evaluate aggressive mimicry relative to alternative
concepts of plant-animal communication.
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