Question
If i feed an asian pitcher plant crickets. they just drown and die.  does the pitcher absorb the nutrients from the large stem that hooks the pitcher to the stem?  or does pitcher absorb through its walls?  because in some of my pitchers, the water level doesnt reach the stem.

Answer
Hello Matt,

Nepenthes secrete a preservative called benzoic acid along with a viscous sugary substance that work together to snare and drown insects that fall into the pitchers. This secretion is produced by the glands in the pitcher walls. Those same glands also produce digestive enzymes after prey is sensed inside the pitcher struggling. After the proteins in the insect are released as peptides, bacteria are allowed to break the remaining nutrients down into plant fertilizer like nitrogen. Once nitrogen has been released into the digestive fluid inside the pitcher it reabsorbs much of the fluid, along with the nitrogen, through the pitcher walls throughout the rest of the pitcher's lifespan. These nutrients are transferred along the tendril and into the leaf, from there making their way throughout the rest of the plant wherever those nutrients are needed. Pitchers low in fluid merely are old or have fewer glands or are not getting enough light to produce their fluids with in quantity.

Christopher