The Insect Inquilines and Victims of Pitcher Plants in North Carolina

Carnivorous pitcher plants eat a diet of certain spiders, regardless of what's on the menu

“…The purple pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea , is a low‐lying herbaceous perennial that uses pitcher‐shaped leaves to capture mostly arthropod prey (Schnell ). Common prey of S. purpurea include insects, spiders, harvestmen, mites, mollusks, and the occasional small vertebrate (Lloyd , Wray and Brimley , Judd , Cresswell , Heard ). Nectaries and pigmented lines may be used by S. purpurea to capture these prey (Juniper et al.…”

“…However, due to the trophic similarity between spiders and carnivorous plants as predators of insects, the ecological relationship between these organisms is complex. Spiders often fall victim to carnivorous plants (Wray andBrimley 1943, Ellison andGotelli 2009), yet may also act as resource parasites when they steal prey from sticky leaves (Anderson and Midgley 2002) or live inside pitchers as residents and potentially intercept prey intended for the plant (Cresswell 1993).…”

“…The purple pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea, is a low-lying herbaceous perennial that uses pitcher-shaped leaves to capture mostly arthropod prey (Schnell 2002). Common prey of S. purpurea include insects, spiders, harvestmen, mites, mollusks, and the occasional small vertebrate (Lloyd 1942, Wray and Brimley 1943, Judd 1959, Cresswell 1991, Heard 1998. Nectaries and pigmented lines may be used by S. purpurea to capture these prey (Juniper et al 1989, Plachno 2007, Schaefer and Ruxton 2008, Bennett and Ellison 2009), although recent evidence points to the presence of nectar rather than pigment (Green andHorner 2007, Bennett and) as the defining difference between the capture rate of a S. purpurea pitcher vs. a cup in the ground (e.g., a pitfall trap).…”

“…Although spiders have long been known to be common prey of S. purpurea, no studies have compared visitors and/or prey capture of S. purpurea to their local abundance. For example, Wray and Brimley (1943) studied the efficacy of spider capture by the plant but limited their examinations to only the spiders that were captured, ignoring the surrounding spider fauna. Other researchers studying this phenomenon have lamented the lack of data on the local arthropod fauna near S. purpurea populations and note that the inclusion of such data would allow for insights into the differences in prey capture among spatially separated S. purpurea populations (Heard 1998).…”

Nature's pitfall trap: salamanders as rich prey for carnivorous plants in a nutrient‐poor northern bog ecosystem

“…For example, 115 insect families of 14 orders have been found in S. purpurea from North Carolina (Wray and Brimley 1943). For example, 115 insect families of 14 orders have been found in S. purpurea from North Carolina (Wray and Brimley 1943).…”