Insectivorous plants benefit from trapped, dead insects as a source of nutrients. On the other hand, most of these plants also depend on free-moving, live insects as pollen vectors for sexual reproduction. This pollinator-prey conflict can be resolved from temporal separation of flower and trap development through the life-history of individuals. Spatial segregation of both systems can also resolve this conflict, as illustrated here by two Drosera species (D. spatulata and D. arcturi; Figure 1A-B). Other species (such as D. auriculata; Figure 1C) are able to produce distinct chemical signaling profiles for flowers and traps, thus relying on the ability of pollinators to differentiate between these chemical cues. Nonetheless, even in the presence of such traits, potential pollinators may end trapped by their mutualistic partners.

Develop a mathematical model that represents the dynamics of population densities on pollinator-prey conflicts in carnivorous plants and explore its behavior.

Initially, you may consider a system with three components: one for carnivorous plant density, one for pollinator density, and one for prey density. These three questions may be used as guidelines for exploring this situation.

• What is the indirect effect of pollinator density on prey density?

• Can a carnivorous plant population survive only relying on pollinators for both reproductive and nutritional purposes?

• Investigate the effects of mechanisms carnivorous plants may employ to resolve these conflicts. For temporal segregation, you may consider some phase lag between flower and trap development. For spatial or chemical segregation, you may consider that this segregation is mediated by some phenotypic trait in the carnivorous plant population (for instance, the distance between flowers and traps).

El-Sayed, Ashraf M., John A. Byers, and David M. Suckling. “Pollinator-Prey Conflicts in Carnivorous Plants: When Flower and Trap Properties Mean Life or Death.” Scientific Reports 6 (February 18, 2016): 21065. doi:10.1038/srep21065.