Kind: captions
Language: en
[Music]
[Applause]
this is the tale of two unlikely
conspirators a carnivorous plant and a
killer
ant the carnivorous fanged pitcher plant
nepenthes B calcara lives in the Pete
swamp forests of Borneo its red and
green leaves curve into p-shaped
recepticles filled with acidic digestive
juice jues they secrete a sweet nectar
which small insects are attracted to but
like many pitcher plants the rim of this
pitcher gets Slippery When Wet causing
the Unlucky bugs to fall in and drown
that's when the digestive juices go to
work breaking down the bug within a
couple of days excuse me but this
pitcher plant has a problem its
digestive fluids are only mildly acidic
and mosquitoes and certain FL eyes find
that it's the perfect place to lay their
eggs the larae that emerge eat some of
the drowned bugs these lar are what are
called kleptoparasites because they
steal the nutrients that would otherwise
be absorbed by the
plant that's where the ant camponotus
schmitti comes in this ant lives out
almost its entire life on the fanged
pitcher plant not only has it evolved to
walk on the pitcher's slippery rim to
get at the nectar it can even swim in
the plant's digestive juices eating some
of the other insects floating in the
acidic bath for years scientists thought
these ants were also parasites but
recently researchers have discovered
that far from harming the plant these
ants help it here's what happens the
swimming ants dive into the liquid grab
the parasitic pupe or larve forcibly
drag them out of the pitcher and eat
them this keeps the arve from stealing
nutrients from the plant it also allows
the plant to gain extra nutrients since
campot schmitti lives on the plant and
inevitably uses the pitcher like a
toilet and because of all the bugs and
baby mosquitoes this ant's poops are
pretty nutrient Rich yum on top of that
when the ants die their carcasses often
fall into the picture and are consumed
as well
delicious in the end the ants get food
and shelter and the plants get
additional nutrients and protection from
maggoty thieves it's a pretty good deal
but it's not one that I plan to take
advantage of anytime
[Applause]
soon e
[Music]