184 HOME STUDIES IN NATURE. 



" May 5th. — Plant No. 1. Two leaves caught house- 

 flies, and another leaf a large blue-bottle fly." 



" May 12th. — The two leaves on No. 1, with house- 

 flies, are opening ; leaves healthy, but the leaf with the 

 large fly has succumbed ; a moldy blight is making its 

 appearance." 



The plants were not restricted in their diet to dip- 

 terous or two-winged insects, but took beetles, bugs, spi- 

 ders, millepeds ; and later in the season a number of 

 "Grand-daddy-long-legs" (a kind of spider) seemed to 

 court death by leisurely dropping their bodies into the 

 trap, while their long legs were left sticking out. The 

 legs showed life from twenty-four to thirty-six hours 

 after the victim was taken in. If I liberated a prison- 

 er two or three hours after it was incarcerated, it did 

 not seem to be injured at all, but would look about a 

 moment as if astonished, and then speed away as fast 

 as it could ; but if I let one remain twenty-four hours, 

 although often alive yet it never recovered. By this 

 time the insect was enveloped in a mucilaginous sub- 

 stance which was fatal to it ; if I washed it off with the 

 utmost care it made no difference, but was sure to die. 

 The average time that it took for a leaf to digest soft- 

 bodied insects, such as flies, spiders, and small larvae, was 

 seven days, but with bugs and beetles it took longer, as 

 the record shows : 



" May 21st. — Plant No. 5. A strong leaf closed over 

 a homopterous insect (Metapodeus nasalus) almost as 

 large as the squash-bug, and somewhat resembling it; 



