Siggi_Hartmeyer Posted May 5, 2020 Report Share Posted May 5, 2020 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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