But the flytrap keeps counting after it closes. If the trigger hairs are disturbed five times in quick succession—eliminating all doubt that it has caught a living, wriggling creature—the plant injects digestive juices into the trap, and the meat meal commences. Digestion takes many days, so it’s important to be sure. But if the trap is triggered twice, snaps shut, and the triggering stops, the trap will open again within one day. Clearly whatever is inside is too small to bother with, or not a living creature at all, but perhaps a bit of twig or stone—or, in the case of all the flytraps that
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