Abstract
Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema spp) have flowers shaped like the flowers of carnivorous pitcher plants. Unlike pitcher plants, however, Arisaema species do not absorb nutrients from insects. Instead, the trapped insects (frequently fungus gnats; various genera within the family Mycetophilidae) become part of a unique pollination system. Victims are handled differently between Arisaema sexual morphs: the male plants allow fungus gnats to escape unharmed, but the gnats die when they are trapped in female flowers. In Shizuoka, Japan, we observed corpses of fungus gnats trapped at the bottom of the spathe (the large bract that surrounds the inflorescence) of the female Arisaema stenophyllum.
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