摘要或動機

The “Insectivorous Plants”﹐ the first historical publication by Charles Darwin﹐contained the detailed observations and meticulous descriptions of various carnivorous plants and had become the most important reference for the study of carnivorous plants﹒ But the prey mechanism and digestive function of the bladder traps of the Utricularia were not well described﹒ The present study has a great success in these fields which include the volume change of bladder traps before and after firing﹐the spontaneous pressure relief of the bladder traps even without being triggered by prey, and the quadriceps visible absorption process﹒ The last two findings are not yet publicated. This laboratory experiment is carried out with Utricularia Gibba﹐a native species of Utricularia in Taiwan﹒ Through static and dynamic observation﹐we find that bladder traps suck in water by 12-25% of body volume change, and the bladder traps release internal pressure spontaneously under long period of waiting, despite not being triggered﹒ We can also easily demonstrate the absorption process of quadriceps by manually triggering the bladder traps to suck food color solutions. All the events above can be clearly seen under microscopy﹒達爾文是最先對食蟲植物作深入且完整研究的科學家，至今他的著作仍是研究食蟲植物的重要資料，但在其內容中對狸藻捕蟲囊捕蟲行為及消化功能的研究觀察並不完整。本實驗使用簡單的方法，在這方面有突破性的進展，包括捕蟲囊捕食前後的體積變化，自發性舒張及囊內腺毛對於食用色素的消化吸收，後兩項發現及實驗均未曾出現在文獻資料中。 本實驗以台灣本土水生食蟲植物絲葉狸藻(Utricularia gibba)為研究對象，由靜態及動態觀察，顯示捕蟲囊捕食前後體積變化為12~25%，且即使在沒有捕到水中生物的情況下，也會有自發性舒張以解除囊內壓力的現象。捕蟲囊內四爪腺毛消化吸收功能的整個過程，可藉由食用色素加以呈現，並清楚的在顯微鏡下觀察到這些現象。