Sacrifice of N. x 'Emmarene' pitchers

[Cindy]

Hubby is in the habit of feeding mealworms to my larger pitchers without me knowing so when I saw the shadow of a mealworm in one of the pitchers, I decided to take a peep in to see if it has already been digested. I nearly threw up when I saw a dead lizard instead!! I checked the other pitchers and found another lizard...it was "looking up" at me.

I have no choice but to cut away the pitchers. Yup, two nice colourful ones despite the gloomy weather lately. When the lizards start rotting, I am sure my neighbours will think there is a dead corpse in my apartment!

Here are the two pitcher I had to dunk.

The one on the left is the one that contained the belly-up lizard.

It has a nice peristome.

What nearly made me lose my lunch.

Found in another pitcher. I can't be sure if this fellow is a goner yet.

 

[obregon562]

heheh...

cool!--i mean...ewww?

 

[jimscott]

Now those lizards didn't just crawl in there by themselves, did they? Was this the act of the DH?

BTW, great fingernails!

 

[Zero]

so was the second lizard still alive? it looks alive in the pic.

 

[macamus3]

I would not cut the pitchers. My N. ventrata catches small anole lizards sometimes. I would just let them digest the one already dead. They look like Gecko's which normally should be able to escape. If smell might be the problem add a little more water to the pitcher to cover dead lizard, should take care of. The benifit to the plant of such a large meal should be fantastic. The peristome on that one pitcher is awesome.
One of my large VFT's caught an anole lizard baby this summer. Did not know they could capture prey this large.

 

[PlantAKiss]

Awwww...you didn't rescue the living lizard?? I couldn't let something like that die in a pitcher.

Beautiful pitchers BTW. It's a shame you had to lose them.

 

[nepenthes369]

Wait a second here, so the plant and it's evolutionary brillance caught lizards and you free them? I see that as being just as cruel to the plant as it is to the lizard but hey if the lizard isn't smart enough to escape then he's food. It's just the way mother nature intended. Now on the other side feeding live lizards that is just cruel. Just think of it like you're the documentarist (not sure what the official name is) then you would sit and wait for something to interact with the pitcher just to document it's behavior and tricks of survival. Then you see the full essence of the plant - prey relationship.

Rob

p.s. beautiful plant and pitchers.

 

[Nepenthusiast]

Nep369;
I don't think it would actually be beneficial to the Nepenthes if you let the lizard get digested. In my understanding the pitcher would just rot (correct me if I'm wrong). Also because so many people walk around the plant, you don't want it to be stinky. It wouldn't be very good neighboorship, would it?

Cindy,
You say "Yucky." I say yummy...looks like I found my lunch. Nice pitchers.

 

[phissionkorps]

I fed (yeah i know...) a lizard to one of my pitchers once. It ate the whole thing and grew pretty well. Never really stank unless you put your nose within a couple inches of the pitcher.

 

[nepenthes369]

Most of the plants that I have if they catch it they digest it, the only pitchers I've had die dure to digesting such prey is when I put the particular prey item in the pitcher, most otherwise the plant does fine and then even better. Just an observation I've noticed and opinion I'd share.

Good growin' to ya,
Rob

No harm intended.

 

[Cindy]

PAK,
The second lizard was dead...or at least I thought so. It didn't move when I shook the pitcher to see if it would react.

I had been smelling something odd at my balcony lately and I suppose it came from the pitchers. The North wind is blowing right into my living area...if I don't remove the pitchers, my entire apartment would stink! I could have just emptied the contents and keep the pitchers but it's quite alright with me to lose them. At least they have been immortalised in this thread.