After landing on this carnivorous plant, the bee enters the flower in search of nectar and is covered with pollen, which it carries to other flowers: a process known as pollination. Polish researcher Bartosz Płachno, from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, used a scanning electron microscope to observe the insect passing through a layer of glands, whose function beyond digestion is still unknown. “It would not be good for the plant to eat its pollinator,” jokes biologist Vitor Miranda. These aquatic plants have carnivorous traps on their submerged stems, which they use to catch small animals, such as larvae.
Images sent by Vitor Miranda, a professor at the Jaboticabal campus of São Paulo State University (UNESP)
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