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Showing results for tags 'functional morphology'.
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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!
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- drosera glanduligera
- catapult-flypaper trap
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How to film sundew snap-tentacles. When filming sundew snap-tentacles, some simple measures can be helpful to prepare the recording correctly and to avoid disturbing shaking by unnecessary poking of the tentacle heads. That needs some understanding on their different response times and motion patterns. Since many years, we experimented with catapulting sundews and summarized our experiences now in this brief movie description, providing hints how to proceed with moderate and rapid catapult-flypaper traps. The idea for this film came up after some requests on Facebook how to film such tentacle motions. Good luck when filming your Drosera.
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Trap diversity and evolution in the family Droseraceae Simon Poppinga, Siegfried R.H. Hartmeyer, Tom Masselter, Irmgard Hartmeyer and Thomas Speck A new review has been published in PBS (Plant Signaling & Behavior) and is now online (open access, link below). Recent investigations revealed how the snap-traps of Aldrovanda vesiculosa (waterwheel plant) and Dionaea muscipula (Venus’ flytrap) work mechanically and how these apparently similar devices differ as to their functional morphology and shutting mechanics. Recently, it was also shown that there exists a higher diversity of different tentacle types and trap configurations in Drosera than previously known which presumably reflect adaptations to different prey spectra. Based on these recent findings, we finally comment on possible ways for intrafamiliar trap evolution. http://www.landesbio.../article/24685/
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- Snap-trap
- Flypaper-trap
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