On the African savanna, a cheetah fights with a lion over the carcass of a gazelle. In a North American boreal forest, a black spruce tree spreads its roots and leaves to capture more light and water from pines trying to do the same. Closely related species often compete aggressively for resources. But researchers have now found a remarkable exception: a plant competing for food with an animal.
The species in question are sundews and insect-eating wolf spiders. Sundews (Drosera capillaris) cover their leaves in a sticky mucous to trap insects and consume them with digestive enzymes, whereas the spiders (Sosippus floridanus) weave dense webs. Both species live close to the ground in the damp bogs of southern Florida, and both prey on a variety of bugs, including flies, ants, crickets, and springtails. This overlap led ecologist Jason Rohr of the University of South Florida in Tampa to wonder if the two species competed for resources.
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