Data from: Trap colour of the carnivorous plant Drosera rotundifolia does not serve a prey attraction or camouflage function.

The traps of many carnivorous plants are red in colour. This has been widely hypothesized to serve a prey attraction function; colour has also been hypothesized to function as camouflage, preventing prey avoidance. We tested these two hypotheses in situ for the carnivorous plant Drosera rotundifolia. We conducted three separate studies: (i) prey attraction to artificial traps to isolate the influence of colour; (ii) prey attraction to artificial traps on artificial backgrounds to control the degree of contrast and (iii) observation of prey capture by D. rotundifolia to determine the effects of colour on prey capture. Prey were not attracted to green traps and were deterred from red traps. There was no evidence that camouflaged traps caught more prey. For D. rotundifolia, there was a relationship between trap colour and prey capture. However, trap colour may be confounded with other leaf traits. Thus, we conclude that for D. rotundifolia, red trap colour does not serve a prey attraction or camouflage function.

许多食肉植物（carnivorous plant）的捕虫器呈红色。学界已就其猎物吸引功能提出诸多假说；另有假说认为，该颜色可发挥伪装作用，避免猎物察觉。我们针对圆叶茅膏菜（Drosera rotundifolia）原位检验了这两项假说。本研究开展了三项独立实验：（i）针对人工捕虫器的猎物吸引试验，以分离颜色的单独影响；（ii）在人工背景下设置人工捕虫器的猎物吸引试验，以控制对比度水平；（iii）对圆叶茅膏菜的猎物捕获情况进行原位观测，以明确颜色对猎物捕获的作用效果。试验结果表明，猎物不会被绿色捕虫器吸引，且会主动避开红色捕虫器。未发现带有伪装色的捕虫器可捕获更多猎物的证据。对于圆叶茅膏菜而言，捕虫器颜色与猎物捕获情况存在相关性。然而，捕虫器颜色可能与其他叶片性状存在混杂效应。据此我们得出结论：圆叶茅膏菜的红色捕虫器并不具备猎物吸引或伪装的功能。