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Rapid Prey Slinging Sundews It always looks sensational when the rapid catapults of some sundews fling their prey into the sticky tentacles of the trapping leaf in a matter of seconds or even milliseconds. The largest of the catapult-flypaper traps known to date, Drosera glanduligera, is even faster than the famous Venus flytrap. In the past, who would have thought a sundew could do that? The exciting research into these fast trapping movements in the genus Drosera only began in the 1980s with the still rather sedate Drosera burmannii / D. sessilifolia. We show with impressive recordings how research into the fast catapults progressed. Even today there are still surprises. In this film we show all known rapid catapult-flypaper traps and present video evidence of the tentacle movement of Drosera australis, a further rapid pygmy Drosera.

Video Springtails and Sundews. Are springtails harmful in plant growing media? What happens when they encounter sundews? The exciting world of primordial insects under the microscope. English subtitles.

New in Guinness World Records 2021 The catapult flypaper trap Drosera glanduligera has now been included in the Guinness World Records 2021 as the fastest terrestrial predatory plant. It is actually faster than the VFT. Together with Dr. Simon Poppinga and the team of the Plant Biomechanics Group of the University of Freiburg, Irmgard and I are very happy about this great success of our common research work on the "Diva" (catapult-flypaper trap published 2012 in Plos One). Simon and the participating authors are additionally pleased, because based on the results of their experiments, the genus Utricularia (using U. australis as an example) was recorded too as the fastest aquatic predatory plant. We would like to take this opportunity to thank particulary Richard Davion (Adelaide, AUS) who was the first who reported about it, and all those who have supported us over the years in the research of snap-tentacles! If you want to see the experimental plants examined at the University of Freiburg in action, I recommend our topic "Carnivorous Plant Speed Contest":

The catapults of the sundew Drosera glanduligera fling passing prey animals in a sensational manner onto the sticky trapping leaves. Already in 2012, we measured and published this enormous - 75 ms - speed for a capture event, in the labs of the Plant Biomechanics Group of the University Freiburg (Germany). In this film, we show again by measurements with Dr. Simon Poppinga at the labs of the bionics specialists in Freiburg, what an amazing force these catapults possess. A single catapult has an average weight of 0.15 mg. The rapidly flung fruit flies in our former experiments weigh 1.74 mg in average, which is about 12 times as much as one catapult. This result is quite amazing, but how efficient are these hydraulic powered tentacles really? Enjoy!

Enjoy the amazing prey capture of a catapulting sundew. Short and succinctly (75 ms) but sensational. Meanwhile, we provide more than 120 thrilling videos on carnivorous plants on our (private and uncommercial) YouTube channel. Simply subscribe to stay up to date.

Amazing results: Pygmy sundews capture minute prey like springtails with rapid catapult action. Our experiments for this film (English subtitles) show that Drosera glanduligera is not longer the only sundew with a catapult-flypaper trapping mechanism. Also the snap-tentacles of several pygmy Drosera act with the speed of a closing Venus flytrap and fling walking prey from the periphery of the plant onto its sticky leaf. Therefore they turn out to be actually comparable with the amazing Drosera glanduligera, however, their catapults are multifunctional and possess a mechanism to avoid unessential movement: Like Venus's Flytrap. Under our microscope we examined 22 Drosera and received surprising results. Furthermore we were able to film many pygmy Drosera in situ on field trips with Allen Lowrie, Greg Bourke and Kirstie Wulf (1991 & 2001), providing these shots now for the first time on YouTube. We are happy to introduce Gideon Lim from Malaysia, who showed the first video of the rapid snap-tentacles of D. pygmaea "New Zealand, all green" on the internet even in 2014. In addition, we recommend a visit at "Andy Landgraf Makrofotografie" on Flickr and on Facebook. Andy kindly provided some of his impressive macro-shots for our film, to feature some more minute prey and predators in "Pygmyland".

Feed me ! Füttere mich ! The catapult-flypaper trap on German TV in September at "planet wissen". A short trailer to announce the broadcast: A sundew is kicking a fruit fly with one of its catapulting tentacles and makes it stumble into the catapult-trap of a neighbour plant. A mighty fine draft for this filmlet. The scientific publication of the catapult-flypaper trap in 2012 in PLOS ONE has been a botanical sensation. Also the technology writer Volker Arzt became aware of it and recommended our (until now unique) HD-shots to the editorial staff of the scientific broadcast "planet wissen". The result: On September 11th our HD-shots will be on air for the first time worldwide on the German TV stations SWR (1:15 pm) and ARD alpha (3 pm). A broadcast on WDR will follow soon.

The world-wide feedback on the PLOS ONE publication of the catapult-flypaper-trap (2012 September 26) exceeds all expectations. Its 75 ms motion beats even the Venus Flytrap. Until today the story has been reported by more than 100 (Dec. 4) international, mainly scientific websites including National Geographic, Science and Smithsonian Magazine. Le Figaro in France added even a soundtrack and a French translation to our video short-cut, published with the article (open access licence, therefore everybody may use that version on his website if the publication and authors are cited). The Greek Madata found and added even a link to our movie "Drosera: Snap-tentacles and Runway Lights" in full length (on the ICPS YouTube-channel). Many CPers know that film from a gratis torrent-stream provider (2007) and the ICPS-conference in Frostburg (2008). However, the latest reports in Korea and China are still a little cryptic to us . Some examples: France (soundtrack added by Le Figaro): http://www.lefigaro....llisecondes.php Greece (only one example, containing the link to our complete snap-tentacle-film): http://www.madata.gr...ges/227461.html Korea: http://nownews.seoul...=20121003601005 China: http://animal.kexue....1003/25206.html Japan: http://www.nationalg..._id=20120928002 Australia: http://www.heraldsun...r-1226482316856 And in case of interest and enough time, all international reports we know (links daily updated): http://www.hartmeyer...e_Feedback.html PLOS ONE original publication: http://dx.plos.org/1...al.pone.0045735 Our documentary film The Diva's Catapult (English captions):

This short film features the prey-catching by the catapult-flypaper-trap of Drosera glanduligera. Simon Poppinga from the Plant Biomechanics Group of the Botanic Garden of the University Freiburg (Head Prof. Dr. Thomas Speck) operated the high-speed camera and the scanning electron microscope. The HD-shots were made by Irmgard and myself on our living-room table, using our Sony Z5 camera. This digest shows explicitly the prey-catching of the catapult-flypaper-trap and was new edited for those, who like to see just the basal principles, and not the complete documentation on our examinations. Our collaboration with the Plant Biomechanics Group "Catapulting Tentacles in a Sticky Carnivorous Plant" was published on September 26 2012 at PLOS ONE (http://dx.plos.org/1...al.pone.0045735).

We are happy to introduce the catapult-flypaper-trap in PLOS ONE and on YouTube: http://dx.plos.org/1...al.pone.0045735 ... and I was not quite sure in which topic I should post this: "Sundews" or "Spring traps" ;-)). We show the first experimental evidence for the role of catapulting tentacles in prey capture of a carnivorous plant and introduce a new active trapping mechanism: The catapult-flypaper-trap. This video documents our (Irmgard and Siegfried R. H. Hartmeyer) collaboration with the Plant Biomechanics Group of the Botanic Garden of the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg (Germany) in 2012, providing all necessary information to handle the sophisticated cultivation of Drosera glanduligera and to understand how this unique sundew from southern Australia uses its amazing combined catapult-flypaper trapping mechanism. Prey animals walking near the edge of the sundew trigger a touch-sensitive snap-tentacle which swiftly catapults them upside down onto adjacent sticky glue-tentacles. By acting like a band-conveyor, the glue-tentacles lift the prey into the concave leaf-center within two minutes where digestion takes place, well protected from kleptoparasites. This is the first detailed documentation and analysis of the prey-catching, functional morphology, and kinematics of such catapulting tentacles, and highlights a unique and surprisingly complex mechanical adaptation to carnivory.