Well, that didn't take anywhere near a whole month like I thought it would.
It's been 6 days since I tossed a mosquito into this shiny new pitcher.
An oil slick has formed on the surface of the pitcher fluid, the liquid is becoming turbid, and the mosquito is looking translucent, so I guess that means it's getting digested and has spilled its insides into the pitcher.
I fished it out with tweezers so we can take a look under the microscope.
Here's the partially digested mass, seen with reflected light. There's a lot of gunk all over the surface. It's probably some combination of bacteria, fungi and proteins/fats/stuff leaking out of the mosquito. The abdomen looks like it's partially empty.
The wings have lost most of their scales, but are otherwise intact.
Looking up close at the thorax, we can see white gaps between the thoracic plates where the membranes connecting them have become stretched. Various sorts of goo can be seen leaking out from between the plates. The thoracic plates have lost their scales and hairs, but are otherwise intact.
Here's the tip of the abdomen. The abdominal plates appear intact, but the membranes connecting them are bulging.
The legs show the most obvious signs of digestion. Several of the leg segments have completely come apart as the thin membranes that make up the joints have been broken down.
At higher magnification, we can see some droplets of oil around the broken joints.
I tossed the mosquito back into the pitcher and will see if I can pick it out again in another week or two.
So far it seems that the digestive enzymes have mostly attacked the thin membranes that connect the exoskeletal plates.
