Question
When an insect lands on the leaves of my sundews, the dew gets removed in that area and the tentacles turn black at the tips and dries out.  However the the plant is growing fine producing dewy leaves.  Is this common

Answer
Hello Matt,

Your Drosera adelae sounds healthy. An unhealthy sundew will not produce dew and will have a hard time catching insects at all. Sundew tentacles are rather delicate, so can be damaged by the struggles and caustic chemical defenses of insects like ants and beetles. It is not uncommon for sundews to lose the function of several tentacles even when capturing small prey. The plant takes account of this loss by speedy leaf replacement. Often enough, a sundew will capture only one or two insects on a particular section of leaf in that leaf's lifetime, the husk of the insect held like a trophy for weeks afterwards.

Drosera adelae tend to specialize in the capture of small flying insects like fruit flies (their leaves and flowers smell slightly of fruit punch if you have a sensitive enough nose to detect it), gnats, and occasionally, mosquitos. Stonger or larger insects, even flies, can often escape them.

Christopher