Ecology: The Biology of Interactions. 4.10. Diversity of Exploitation Forms
From an ecological point of view, predators include both a ladybird hunting aphids, a daphnia filtering algae from water, and even a sundew gradually digesting a mosquito that landed on its leaf. What all these organisms have in common is that they consume other living organisms, and consumption requires depriving them of life...
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April 9. Commensalism
D. Shabanov, M. Kravchenko. Ecology: Biology of Interaction. Chapter 4. Population Ecology
April 11. Predation
4.10. Diversity of exploitation forms From an ecological point of view, both the ladybug that preys on aphids, and filtering marine organisms, and leaf beetles that feed on plant leaves are predators. However, in some cases, such interactions are called by different terms by researchers, depending on how the interaction is organized and how extreme the predator's specialization is. Let's consider how interactions change depending on how feeding is organized. If a predator hunts prey that can escape, it is true predation. If an organism exploits a partner that lives inside it or feeds on its tissues, it is parasitism. If an organism exploits another, but in such a way that the host suffers little from it, it can be called parasitoidism (if it is killed at the final stage of development) or grazing predation (if the host remains alive for a long time). If an organism indirectly exploits a partner by taking resources to raise its young, but without causing serious harm to it, it can be called kleptoparasitism (in the case of food piracy), pseudoparasitism, or even commensalism.