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Mystery #3Tier 2plants / biology

Why do some plants trap and eat insects instead of just soaking up sunlight?

Most plants seem happy to sit in the sun and make their own food. But a few, like the Venus flytrap and the pitcher plant, build clever traps and catch living insects. They are green and can use sunlight too, so why on earth would a plant bother hunting bugs?

Venus flytraps growing in wet moss, their spiky hinged traps held open, with a fly resting on one of them
Photo: Isiwal · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

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