Prey or predator? Photo: Kathy Schultz
I love this ravishing video* of Coremacera marginata, an inhabitant of Monte Borghetto (Lake Garda area), northern Italy.
I wonder how this delicate beauty would fare amidst the carnivorous Venus flytraps I’m growing at Moss + Mineral…
Venus flytrap illustration from Curtis’s Botanical Magazine by William Curtis (1746–1799)
According to Wikipedia, the insectivorous plant’s diet “is a very specialized form of foliar feeding, and is an adaptation found in several plants from soil poor in nutrients. Their carnivorous traps were evolutionarily selected to allow these organisms to survive their harsh environments.” So far, the two small flytraps I’m raising have survived on a combination of moist mossy soil, distilled water (tap water being deadly to the bog dwellers), and sunlight. Though slow growing, they are a chipper green, and don’t appear to be suffering from the privation of meat in their diet. ~Lisa Kinoshita
* Peepshow courtesy of Pristurus.
