Caught in the Middle of a Food Web!
Sun--> Plant-->Caterpillar-->Parasitoid
Louisiana has some very unique plants and animals in the bayou. I have seen some amazing spiders, grasshoppers, snails and butterflies. Not to mention that I have also learned about the fascinating plants that grow on land and in the marshy water. Our focus is on the food web but what is a food web you ask? Great question! A food web shows how energy is transfered from one living thing to the next. Each food web starts with the energy source which is the sun. The energy from the sun is used by plants which are producers. Plants are eaten by caterpillars which are primary consumers. Now you know that caterpillars have many different predators but in our study we are interested in the parasitoids which are secondary consumers. What exactly are parasitoids you ask? Another excellent question! A parasitoid is an organism that uses a host's body for food and development but by doing that it also ends up destroying the host.
Let me give you an example! The Ilex Decidua (a tpye of plant) is eaten by the Fall Webworm and the Braconid Wasp in order to develop, must lay their eggs inside a caterpillar in order to give their larva the food supply that they need. When the Braconid wasp larva is done feeding off the caterpillar it will forms its pupa by creating its cocoon on the caterpillars body. Sadly this kills our favorite creature the caterpillar but without a host, a parasitoid cannot survive.
As we are caring for the caterpillars that we have collected, we continue to observe them as they grow and change. In some cases we see the pupa of a parasitoid appear on our caterpillars. Take a look at the pictures to see what this change looks like.
Before --------> After
Challenge:
What would happen to the caterpillar population if there was an increase in parasitoids?
What might happen to the caterpillar population if there was a decrease in parasitoids?
posted by Miss Turner @ 6:49 PM
13 Comments:
We think that it is sad that the wasps are killing the caterpillars but we know that we need them too. If there were too many parasitoids we would lose our beautiful butterfly population!! Too many caterpillars and we lose too many vegetables!! Your pictures are excellent and awesome!! We have really learned a LOT about caterpillars. Now we know what a food web is!! We are also primary consumers because we eat plants too!!
We read in the newspaper that it is 70's and 80's there and clear...but here it is 50's and rainy!! We wish we were there!!:-) We miss you!! Love, your class
P.S. We are ALL newspaper ******'s!!!
What would happen if there was an increase of parasitoids?Well,what would happen is the number of cattipillars could go down, but there could be a chance of it surviving a little longer.And what would happen if it decreased is it can be good.
I think what would happen if there was an increse of parasitoids. there would NOT be enouph hosts to go around.Plus, that butterfly would not have life.
I think it is very interesting!I think they could live much longer if it would increase.I think they wouldn't live long if it decreased.
if the number of parsitoids went up than you wouldent have eunufe animals for them to chow on.if the number of parasitoids went down than it would be like perfeket
Thats the most fastanating thing I have ever heared!!!!!!!!!!Talking about a food web makes me hungry.Reading about the parasatroid is makeing me think about it.If the parasatroid keeps eating other animals there would be less animals and iftere were less parasatroids there wouldbe more animals.
If all the caterpillars decrease then they would die.
If we had parasitoids we wouldnt
have any catapillars.
Fun to be in Louiseana! I think its fun to learn about sorts of caterpiller and butterflies.
But if there were more parasitoids there wouldnt be any more caterpillers.But if there where less, there would be more population of caterpillers.
parasitoids eat caterpillar and if they do then there wod be lees caterpillar
I think that if there was an increase in the parasitoids, than there would be a lot less caterpillars, and if there were less caterpillars, than there's a lot less birds. If there's less birds than the snake population will go down. So that's why I think that if the parasitoids, it would hurt the enviroment badly. The food chain just has a way of connecting everything.
Paige
If there were more wasps a lot of the caterpillars would die because the wasps would kill them. The caterpillars may go extinct.
If there were less parasitoids, more caterpillars would survive, and you could collect more caterpillars for your study. There would also be less plants because the caterpillars would eat the plants.
Mr. Spite's Class
I think that the caterpillar populaition would decreace if there was a increase in parisoids. Then, plants would take over the earth!! If there was no parisoids, there would be no plants!! The populaition is good the way it is.
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