Bobby Moore, age 10, of Port Angeles, Wash., for his question:

Is the Venus's flytrap carnivorous?

Carnivorous means meat‑eating and we are used to the idea that many animals are carnivores. But Venus's flytrap is a plant and the idea of a meat‑eating plant is a little shocking. Most plants are content to let themselves be eaten by animals. A few turn the tables and. dine on animals. The Venus's flytrap is one of these rare carnivorous plants.

The little sundew, not much bigger than a silver dollar, is another. Several types of pitcher plant also eat meat and so does a water weed called the bladderwort. All these are small or smallish plants. The game they trap is insects. Fob this reason they are called insectivorous plants. It is believed that they digest insects to get nitrogen. Most of these plants live in soils which are poor in nitrogen content.

The Venus's flytrap lives in the boggy bottom lands of the Carolinas. It is a modest little plant, nestled to the ground in a flat rosette of leaves. At certain times a thin stem grows up from the center of the rosette and the top bursts into a cluster of white blossoms. These flowers, however, are not interested in trapping insects.

This job is done by the leaves, which are very strange, indeed. Each grows in two parts. The leaf which grows from the central stem is heart­ shaped, with the tapered end towards the center. From the top of the heart there grows what looks like a small ping gong bat. The little bat has a fringe of stiff spines down either side. And, if you look closely, you will see a definite line down the center.

This line is actually a hinge. Three sensitive hairs on the leaf are placed to form a triangle. These sensitive hairs trigger the hinge down the center of the strange leaf. When one or more of them feel just a touch the hinge snaps the two halves of the 1eaf shut and the spiky fringes interlock like fingers.

Under normal conditions, a half dozen of these leaves are spread, out flat around the outer edge of the rosette. They glisten with crimson goo which oozes from special glands to attract the passing flies. Sooner or later, a passim; fly becomes curious. He zooms in for a landing. He is almost certain to brush one of the sensitive hairs on the face of the leaf. Small as he is, this is enough to spring the trap. The hinge closes the two halves of the leaf and the spiky finders interlock.

The glands in the leaf then pour out strong acid juices. The soft tissues of the fly are dissolved and digested. In a few days, the leaf opens again and the dry husk of the fly blows away. The flytrap is again open for business.