Go Big or Go Home: Pitcher plant hosts and their crab spider tenants

The carnivorous traps of Nepenthes pitcher plants are sometimes inhabited by a species of crab spider which ambushes insects as they arrive at traps. Recently published work by Weng Ngai Lam and Hugh Tan showed that this apparent thievery is actually beneficial to the plants — but only when crab spiders attack big prey with high nutrient contents. Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants that trap … Continue reading Go Big or Go Home: Pitcher plant hosts and their crab spider tenants