Foot G, Rice S P, Millett J
School of Life Sciences, The University of Warwick, , Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
Biol Lett. 2014 Apr 16;10(4):20131024. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.1024. Print 2014.
The traps of many carnivorous plants are red in colour. This has been widely hypothesized to serve a prey attraction function; colour has also been hypothesized to function as camouflage, preventing prey avoidance. We tested these two hypotheses in situ for the carnivorous plant Drosera rotundifolia. We conducted three separate studies: (i) prey attraction to artificial traps to isolate the influence of colour; (ii) prey attraction to artificial traps on artificial backgrounds to control the degree of contrast and (iii) observation of prey capture by D. rotundifolia to determine the effects of colour on prey capture. Prey were not attracted to green traps and were deterred from red traps. There was no evidence that camouflaged traps caught more prey. For D. rotundifolia, there was a relationship between trap colour and prey capture. However, trap colour may be confounded with other leaf traits. Thus, we conclude that for D. rotundifolia, red trap colour does not serve a prey attraction or camouflage function.
许多食肉植物的捕虫器是红色的。人们普遍认为这具有吸引猎物的功能；也有人认为颜色起到伪装作用，防止猎物避开。我们针对食肉植物圆叶茅膏菜在实地对这两种假设进行了测试。我们开展了三项独立研究：（i）人工捕虫器对猎物的吸引，以分离颜色的影响；（ii）人工背景下人工捕虫器对猎物的吸引，以控制对比度；（iii）观察圆叶茅膏菜对猎物的捕获，以确定颜色对猎物捕获的影响。猎物不会被绿色捕虫器吸引，且会被红色捕虫器吓退。没有证据表明伪装的捕虫器能捕获更多猎物。对于圆叶茅膏菜来说，捕虫器颜色与猎物捕获之间存在关联。然而，捕虫器颜色可能与其他叶片特征相互混淆。因此，我们得出结论，对于圆叶茅膏菜而言，红色捕虫器颜色不具有吸引猎物或伪装的功能。
