Editing Insectivore (section)

==Insectivorous plants==
{{main|Insectivorous plants}}
[[File:Drosera à feuilles ovales (Drosera x obovata) dans les Hautes-Vosges - Cliché Vosagus 28-06-2009.JPG|alt=|thumb|''[[Drosera capensis|Drosera species]]'' ]]
[[Carnivorous plant|Insectivorous plants]] are plants that derive some of their [[nutrient]]s from trapping and consuming animals or [[protozoan]]. The benefit they derive from their catch varies considerably; in some species, it might include a small part of their nutrient intake and in others it might be an indispensable source of nutrients. As a rule, however, such animal food, however valuable it might be as a source of certain critically important minerals, is not the plants' major source of [[energy]], which they generally derive mainly from photosynthesis.<ref name="Slack & Gate">{{cite book |last1=Slack |first1=Adrian |last2=Gate |first2=Jane |year=2000 |title=Carnivorous Plants |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-69089-8}}</ref>{{rp|page=14}}

Insectivorous plants might consume insects and other animal material trapped adventitiously. However, most species to which such food represents an important part of their intake are specifically, often spectacularly, adapted to attract and secure adequate supplies. Their prey animals typically, but not exclusively, comprise [[insect]]s and other [[arthropod]]s.  Plants highly adapted to reliance on animal food use a variety of mechanisms to secure their prey, such as pitfalls, sticky surfaces, hair-trigger snaps, bladder-traps, entangling furriness, and lobster-pot trap mechanisms.<ref name="Slack & Gate"/>{{rp|page=14–17}} Also known as ''carnivorous plants'', they appear adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially [[nitrogen]], such as acidic [[bog]]s and rock outcroppings.<ref name="Slack & Gate"/>{{rp|page=13}}

Insectivorous plants include the [[Venus flytrap]], several types of [[pitcher plant]]s, [[butterwort]]s, [[sundew]]s, [[bladderwort]]s, the [[waterwheel plant]], [[brocchinia]] and many members of the [[Bromeliaceae]]. The list is far from complete, and some plants, such as [[Roridula]] species, exploit the prey organisms mainly in a mutualistic relationship with other creatures, such as resident organisms that contribute to the digestion of prey. In particular, animal prey organisms supply carnivorous plants with nitrogen, but they also are important sources of various other soluble minerals, such as potassium and trace elements that are in short supply in environments where the plants flourish. This gives them a decisive advantage over other plants, whereas in nutrient-rich soils they tend to be out-competed by plants adapted to aggressive growth where nutrient supplies are not the major constraints.

Technically these plants are not strictly insectivorous, as they consume any animal that they can secure and consume; the distinction is trivial, however, because not many primarily insectivorous organisms exclusively consume insects. Most of those that do have such a restrictive diet, such as certain [[parasitoid]]s and [[hunting wasp]]s, are specialized to exploit particular species, not insects in general. Indeed, much as large mantids and spiders will do, the larger varieties of pitcher plants have been known to consume [[vertebrate]]s such as small rodents and lizards.<ref name="Slack & Gate"/>{{rp|page=13}} [[Charles Darwin]] wrote the [[Insectivorous Plants (book)|first well-known treatise on carnivorous plants]] in 1875.<ref name="darwin1875">{{cite book |author=Darwin, C. |author-link=Charles Darwin |title=Insectivorous Plants |publisher=John Murray |place=London, UK |year=1875 |url=http://pages.britishlibrary.net/charles.darwin3/insectivorous/insect01.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060923021622/http://pages.britishlibrary.net/charles.darwin3/insectivorous/insect01.htm | archive-date=2006-09-23 }}</ref>