title: Effective prey attraction in the rare Drosophyllum lusitanicum, a flypaper-trap carnivorous plant.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Carnivorous plants have unusually modified leaves to trap insects as an adaptation to low-nutrient environments. Disparate mechanisms have been suggested as luring traits to attract prey insects into their deadly leaves, ranging from very elaborate to none at all. Drosophyllum lusitanicum is a rare carnivorous plant with a common flypaper-trap mechanism. Here we tested whether Drosophyllum plants lure prey insects into their leaves or they act just as passive traps.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared prey capture between live, potted plants and Drosophyllum-shaped artificial mimics coated with odorless glue. Since this species is insect-pollinated, we also explored the possible existence of a pollinator-prey conflict by quantifying the similarity between the pollination and prey guilds in a natural population. All experiments were done in southern Spain.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The sticky leaves of Drosophyllum captured significantly more prey than mimics, particularly small dipterans. Prey attraction, likely exerted by scent or visual cues, seems to be unrelated to pollinator attraction by flowers, as inferred from the low similarity between pollinator and prey insect faunas found in this species.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results illustrate the effectiveness of this carnivorous species at attracting insects to their flypaper-trap leaves.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología-ceiA3, Universidad de Cádiz, Campus Río San Pedro, E-11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain.
authors.forename: Nils
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bertol
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología-ceiA3, Universidad de Cádiz, Campus Río San Pedro, E-11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Paniw
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología-ceiA3, Universidad de Cádiz, Campus Río San Pedro, E-11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ojeda
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D031257:Droseraceae / Q000502:physiology; D020387:Food Chain; D007313:Insecta / Q000502:physiology*; D019684:Magnoliopsida / Q000502:physiology*; D054817:Pollination; D013030:Spain
keywords: Drosophyllaceae; Mediterranean heathland; adhesive trap; insect attraction; plant–artificial mimic comparison; prey–pollinator conflict