Larvae Survive in Digestive Liquids

a black fly with red eyes walks on a purple and white veined pitcher plant

Biological Strategy

Flesh flies

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Protect From Chemicals

Chemicals are everywhere in the bodies of living organisms and their external environments. While most chemicals are valuable or benign, some are toxic, including those used for defense (such as the mucus that protects clownfish from an anemone’s stinging tentacles). Even naturally-occurring chemicals, such as arsenic, must be managed to reduce their impact. Some living systems have strategies to break down harmful chemicals, alter them into less toxic forms, physically prevent chemicals from harming sensitive tissues, and more. For example, some herbivorous mammals can digest toxic compounds in plants because they have a particular enzyme that helps them process poisonous plant compounds.

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Manage Chemical Wear

A living system is subject to chemical wear whenever a corrosive chemical comes in contact with susceptible surfaces. To protect from the impact of such wear, living systems have strategies that provide protective barriers or create reactions to neutralize the chemicals. For example, the human stomach is filled with gastric juices that digest organic materials, yet the stomach doesn’t digest itself due to a mucus coating its surface.

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Insects

Class Insecta (“an insect”): Flies, ants, beetles, cockroaches, fleas, dragonflies

Insects are the most abundant arthropods—they make up 90% of the animals in the phylum. They’re found everywhere on earth except the deep ocean, and scientists estimate there are millions of insects not yet described. Most live on land, but many live in freshwater or saltwater marshes for part of their life cycles. Insects have three distinct body sections: a head, which has specialized mouthparts, a thorax, which has jointed legs, and an abdomen. They have well-developed nervous and sensory systems, and are the only invertebrate that can fly, thanks to their lightweight exoskeletons and small size.

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The larvae of flesh flies live in the water trap of pitcher plants and withstand the digestive enzyme juices meant to break down organisms.

“Consider the pitcher plant, carnivorous, or meat-eating plant found in Canadian bogs…A flesh fly larva lives in the water trap, as does a mosquito and a midge, and they are all adapted to withstand the digestive enzymes that the plant excretes to break down the terrestrial insects it captures in the water trap. Each insect occupies a different position in the water trap. Most important, none of the insects can live anywhere else but in these exact spots.” (Forsyth 1992:39)

Last Updated August 18, 2016

References

Book

Exploring the World of Insects: The Equinox Guide to Insect Behaviour

30/10/1992 | Adrian Forsyth

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