Host parasite associations

Question 1

Why flock or herd?

Answer 1

• safety in numbers
• aerodynamics
• easier to find mates
• efficient foraging
• raising families
• communication and coordination in a group

Question 2

Disadvantages of flocking or herding?

Answer 2

• greater predation risk
• parasites
• infectious diseases
• competition for food and mates

Question 3

Distinguish between mono and dioecious?

Answer 3

MONO - male and female sex organs on the same individual

DIO - organisms having male and female reproductive organs on separate individuals

Question 4

There is a (a) between amount of parental care and number of offspring

Answer 4

trade- off

Question 5

Define phoresis? What form of interspecific animal interaction does this come under?

Answer 5

• act of ‘hitching a lift’ on another organism

- COMMENSALISM

Question 6

Define the following interspecific interactions and think about examples for each:

a) Predation
b) Ammensalism
c) Competition
d) Neutralism
e) Commensalism
f) Mutualism
g) Parasitism
h) Symbiosis

Answer 6

a) One species eats and consumes another.
- true predation
- grazing
- parasites

b) Amensalism, association between organisms of two different species in which one is inhibited or destroyed and the other is unaffected. (elephant waling through a forest)
c) both organisms negatively affected eg. a competition for a food resource
d) neither organism affected
e) One organism benefits, the other doesn’t eg. a cattle egret and buffalo

f) Both organisms benefit
eg. symbiosis between coral and zooxanthellae

g) one species benefits at the expense of the other
eg. any organism that lives on and draws nutrients from another living organism, usually to the host’s detriment

h) term used for close physical associations between two species, usually a ‘host’ and a ‘symbiont’

Question 7

What are the four forms of mutualism?

Answer 7

1. Service based relationship
   eg. anemones and clown fish
2. Resource based relationship
   eg. algae and coral
3. Service traded for a resource
   eg. client fish and cleaner fish
4. Humans and farming
   - humans benefit from agriculture and cattle are defended from wild species

Question 8

Humans have a unique (a) which hosts a community of (b), their genome and environmental interactions.

Answer 8

a) microbiome

b) microbes

Question 9

Ectoparasites live on the (a) of their host whereas endoparasites live (b) the body of host.

Answer 9

a) surface

b) inside

Question 10

There are four main types of symbiotic relationships:

Answer 10

mutualism, commensalism, parasitism and competition.