科学家近日在印尼婆罗洲发现，蝙蝠栖息在食肉植物的捕虫囊中。这种异于寻常的生存方式，给双方都带来好处——食肉植物得益于蝙蝠粪便中的营养素，而蝙蝠则安全的藏匿于植物的捕虫囊中。
猪笼草捕虫囊中部阴影就是栖息的蝙蝠
新刊登在期刊《生物快报》 Biology Letters 的研究报告称，科学家发现这些独特的植物亚种和哺乳动物有着非比寻常的关系。
猪笼草——食肉植物的一种，长于营养元素稀缺的土壤环境中，需要依赖捕食昆虫来获取成长所需的足够的氮元素。
而在婆罗洲的泥沼地和石南林中发现的莱佛士猪笼草，以超长捕虫囊著称。而在早前的研究发现，它所捕食的昆虫数量，只有其他婆罗洲食肉植物的1/7。
乌尔曼·格拉夫(Ulmar Grafe)博士及其研究小组研究这种植物如何补充氮元素的摄入的时候，却惊讶的在其捕虫囊中发现了长毛蝙蝠。格拉夫博士说，“我们完全没有料到会发现蝙蝠居住在捕虫囊中。”而被发现的小型哈氏长毛蝙蝠生活在捕虫囊中部，避开了其底部的消化液。
去年，科学家发现树鼩把另一种食肉植物——马来王猪笼草的捕虫囊当做“天然厕所”。但是，这还是首次在食肉植物的捕虫囊中发现哺乳类动物活体。 （生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原文出处：
Biol. Lett. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.1141
A novel resource–service mutualism between bats and pitcher plants
T. Ulmar Grafe1,*, Caroline R. Sch?ner2, Gerald Kerth3, Anissa Junaidi1 and Michael G. Sch?ner2
Abstract
Mutualistic relationships between vertebrates and plants apart from the pollen and seed-dispersal syndromes are rare. At first view, carnivorous pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes seem to be highly unlikely candidates for mutualistic interactions with animals, as they form dimorphic terrestrial and aerial pitchers that trap arthropods and small vertebrates. Surprisingly, however, the aerial pitchers of Nepenthes rafflesiana variety elongata are poor insect traps, with low amounts of insect-attractive volatile compounds and low amounts of digestive fluid. Here, we show that N. rafflesiana elongata gains an estimated 33.8 per cent of the total foliar nitrogen from the faeces of Hardwicke's woolly bats (Kerivoula hardwickii hardwickii) that exclusively roost in its aerial pitchers. This is the first case in which the faeces-trapping syndrome has been documented in a pitcher plant that attracts bats and only the second case of a mutualistic association between a carnivorous plant and a mammal to date.
