Earth is home to some pretty nasty carnivorous plants that feed on other plants using sticky digestive juices to trick insects and flies into mating with them.new research on plant genus Alisa Emma This indicates an unusual evolutionary process in the plant kingdom.Relationships between carnivore species Alisa Emma Plant genera may have more subtle relationships with their insect prey.Gnats that end up running away Arisa Emma Waxy flowers may be helpful if you eat some of the decayed flowers. Here are the findings: The study was published February 19 in the journal Plants, people, planets.
[Related: Two newly discovered Andes Mountain plant species have an appetite for insects.]
Lure pollinators to death
Many plants rely on animals such as bees, butterflies, and moths for pollination. Most also provide some kind of reward, such as nectar, for their reproductive services. However, some plants prefer species of the same genus. Alisa Emma It fools pollinators.
“It is famous for being the only plant that achieves pollination at the expense of the pollinator’s life,” says study co-author Kenji Suetsugu, a biologist at Kobe University in Japan. stated in a statement.
These plants use their musky scent to Attract mushroom gnats They usually feed on mushrooms and lay eggs in cup-shaped flowers.Fungus gnats can escape from males Alisa Emma The flowers bloom, but only after they are covered with plant pollen.provided by women There’s no way to escape. When the insect enters the female body, Alisa Emma Gnats can’t grip the corrugated interior, so they’ll have a hard time finding a way out. This will kill the gnats and ensure that the flowers can be pollinated.
Thinking beyond “adversarial relationships”
Suetsugu’s team sought to challenge traditional views in pollination biology and designed experiments to look for more subtle interactions between them. Alisa Emma plants and their prey. In the study, male and female flowers of Brassicaceae were collected. seed alyssa emma thunbergii. They took a closer look at what types of insects were caught and what happens to the flowers after pollination.
They discovered that the main pollinator is a fungus gnat named gnat. Leia Ishitani. This insect lays eggs in flowers, and its larvae actually feed on the decaying flowers. After a few weeks in this plant nursery, developing mushroom gnats will appear. Young insects may leave the flower without leaving behind the carcass of an adult of the same species. According to the team, this suggests at least the following: Some mushroom gnats can escape from flower traps.
This interaction between insects and plants appears to be a new example. mutualism. This is where two different species form a bond for mutual benefit. Oxpecker birds eat insects that live in the fur of large mammals.. Larvae that feed on decaying flowers may be beneficial to pests. A. Thunbergi A similar method, but further research is needed to confirm this.
[Related: Carnivorous pitcher plants may use tempting aromas to lure prey to their death.]
“Plant-insect interactions are probably still different from other typical examples of nursery symbiosis,” Suetsugu says.
Mushroom gnats are not addictive A. Thunbergi It is the flower’s only nursery source, and insects permanently trapped inside the flower are deprived of the opportunity to lay eggs elsewhere. Interaction with these carnivorous flowers certainly appears to be costly for insects.
full of surprises
A. Thunbergi This may be an example of abnormal evolutionary process It moves from simply deceiving for food to a more symbiotic relationship where the gnats are given a nursery and the plants are left to tend to their decaying leaves. When the research team looked closely at the other members, they found that Alisa Emma genera can give rise to similar types of interactions.
“This discovery adds a new dimension to our knowledge of plant-insect interactions, but the most interesting thing is that even in a well-studied field, there is still much to learn. That’s what I mean,” Suetsugu said. “Nature is full of surprises!”
