Question

Options in the drop box for all of the questions are: positive-positive, positive-negative, negative-negative

Consider a garden tomato plant and some of the species that live on and around it. Identify whether the relationship between two species is positive-positive, positive-neutral, or positive-negative. A hawk moth lays eggs on the tomato plant. The eggs hatch into caterpillars, which consume the vegetation. As the caterpillars eat the leaves, the plant produces an airborne chemical that attracts a braconid wasp. The wasp lays eggs on the caterpillars. The wasp larvae slowly digest the caterpillars' insides and eventually kill their hosts. A jumping spider attaches a silk strand to the tomato plant and launches from the plant to ambush a gnat. The spider injects a paralyzing poison into the gnat and then consumes it. What kind of relationship do the tomato plant and caterpillars have? What kind of relationship do the tomato plant and wasp have? What kind of relationship do the caterpillars and wasp have? What kind of relationship do the spider and tomato plant have? What kind of relationship do the spider and gnat have?

Answer 1

1. Positive – Negative – the caterpillar eats the vegetation of the plant so the relationship is negative to tomato plant. But it is positive to caterpillar which feed on leaves of the tomato plant.

2. Positive – positive – caterpillar causes negative effect on tomato plant. So it is the enemy of tomato plant. The wasp kills the caterpillar and reduce the negative effect on the plant by the caterpillar. The tomato plant help to attract the wasp to the caterpillar by producing chemicals. So both get benefited.

3. Positive – Negative – caterpillar is the host of the wasp. So the wasp has got benefits from caterpillar. But the caterpillar got killed by the wasp. So caterpillar has negative effect from wasp.

4. Positive – neutral – the spider attach the silk to the tomato plant, so it get benefited from plant. But tomato plant do not get any harm or benefit from the spider.

5. Positive – negative – the spider prey on the gnat. It has a positive benefit from the gnat. But the gnat got killed by the spider. So the relationship among them is Positive – negative.