BIOB50H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Parasitic Plant, Carnivora, Net Impact
Document Summary
Predators (carnivores) typically kill their hosts => parasites do not, and instead infect them. Examples of predation (carnivory), grazing (herbivory), and parasitism are all visible. Insects that typically lay eggs on or in another insect (the host). After they hatch from their eggs, the parasitoid larvae remain with the host, which they eat and usually kill. Parasitoids can be considered unusual parasites (because they consume most or all of their host, almost always killing it) or unusual carnivores (because over the course of their lives they eat only one individual, killing it slowly). Aphidius colemani, shown here depositing an egg into an aphid, can be considered unusual carnivores because during their lifetime they eat and slowly kill only one prey individual. Parasitoids can also be viewed as unusual parasites that eat all or most of their host, thereby killing it.
