Transcript Ants protecting the acacia from hungry herbivores and pruning away

Living Relationships
Mutualism
Commensalism Parasitism
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Ants protecting the acacia from hungry herbivores and
pruning away competing plants. The ants live inside inflated
thorns at the base of leaves.
A lichen growing on the trunk of a mangrove tree. The
lichen consists of a fungus and an algae growing
together. The fungus gets food from the
photosynthesising algae and the algae gets a place to
live.
•In this example an oyster has attached itself to a
mangrove pnematophore. The oyster has a solid
base to live and the mangrove is not disadvantaged.
•The Mistletoe penetrates the bark of the mangrove
and then takes some of its food from the mangrove.
The mangrove is disadvantaged by this.
This species (black fish) has only been recorded from
the Ryukyu Archipelago. It has a remarkable association
with a number of species of gobies, apparently living
permanently on their fins, and feeding on the skin
between the fin rays.
Leafcutter ants carry leaf fragments to their underground
nest during a downpour in the lowland rain forest of La
Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica. The leaves will
become food for the symbiotic fungi cultivated by the
ants, which in turn provide food for the ants in the form of
filaments swollen with nutrients.
Bromeliads in bloom, on a sunlight drenched
treelimb in the canopy.
(Much like Kudzu in Georgia)
The Patella gets it
food from the plant,
the Euklonia, which is
not harmed or
damaged in the
process.
The Egret eats insects off the rhino’s back
Butterflies pollinate flowers;
receive nectar
The
protozoa trichonympha
lives in each termite's
gut and breaks down
cellulose so that the
termite can obtain
nutrition from its food.
Legumes and soil bacteria
Fixed nitrogen is obtained by the legume and the Rhizobium gets
a nice place to live with all of the amenities!.
A remarkable 3-way relationship appears to have evolved between an ant, a
butterfly caterpillar, and an acacia in the American southwest. The
caterpillars have nectar organs which the ants drink from, and the acacia
tolerates the feeding caterpillars. The ants appear to provide some
protection for both plant and caterpillar. Research of Diane Wagner,
American Museum of Natural History Southwestern Research Station
Sterechinus neumayeri urchins attach algae to themselves as a detachable shield
to shed when a potential predator (including anemones, seastars) grabs onto the
attached algae. The algae manufactures unpalatable defensive chemicals to avoid
getting eaten by the urchin. The urchins pick up loose algae drifting on the
seafloor and move fertile drift algae throughout sunlit waters, thereby keeping
the fertile algae in the reproductive area with other attached and drift algae.
The crinoid Promachocrinus kerguelensis can be
seen perched on large volcano sponges
Anoxycalyx (Scolymastra) joubini, using the
sponge for support to feed higher up in the
water column, where they feed off particles and
organisms drifting in the current.
The senita moth, less than 1/2 inch long, is an obligate partner in a newly
discovered mutualism with the senita cactus, whose flowers bloom only
after dark and are pollinated almost exclusively by this moth. The moth
lays its eggs (top right) in flowers. Larvae (moth caterpillars) which hatch
from these eggs later consume some of the fruits. J. Nathaniel Holland
of Rice University has studied this mutualism in Mexico and at Organ Pipe
Cactus National Monument. His research assistant (right) checks fruits
for larvae.
A mosquito takes blood from a human- possibly causing disease.
The clown fish takes refuge in a sea anenome.
Parasitic Aphid Wasp, Lysiphlebus (=Aphidius)
testaceipes, depositing egg in aphid
Carcasses of aphids after parasitism by Parasitic Aphid
Wasp, Lysiphlebus (=Aphidius) testaceipes
The leaf and/or stem of plant swells, like a lump;
due to the parasitism by an insect.
Wasps, flies, aphids or other insects "trick" the plant into making a
house for the insect to live in while it matures. The insect tells the
plant to build it a home, then the insect lives in the home - often
while it is feeding upon the plant!
In this photograph, the reddish clump on the left side of the
tree is mistletoe. It is growing on a paloverde tree. Although
it makes all of its own food, the mistletoe's root-like parts
get water through the paloverde branches and not directly
from the soil.
A fly agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria) and a cone of Eastern White Pine are
side by side on a New Hampshire forest floor in October. A sapling of Eastern
Hemlock sends sprays over the mushroom, and wintergreen adds a splash of red.
The pine and fungus form a partnership in which underground filaments of the
mycorrhizal fungus invade the roots of the pine, and both provide essential
nutrients to each other. Both partners have their reproductive structures above
ground.