What Animals Eat The Fig Tree Leaves Quizlet

The Queen of Copse

The Queen of Trees

The sycomore fig tree, the African queen of trees, begins life every bit a tiny seedling, then gracefully ages to over 100 years old. This regal tree is the centerpiece of an extraordinary ecosystem, producing several tons of fruit a year and feeding a greater variety of animals than whatever other kind of tree in Africa. The animals that banquet on the tree's fruit, in return, disperse the fig seeds far and wide. But other creatures who harvest the queen'south sweet and nourishing sap may damage the tree in the procedure.

Fig Wasp

Fig Wasp

The fig wasp is crucial to the queen's survival; without it, the sycomore would non be able to pollinate and reproduce. The process begins when female wasps are attracted to the scent of the microscopic flowers blooming within the fruit of the African queen. Loaded downwards with fig tree pollen and fig wasp eggs, these tiny wasps enter the fig via a sliver of an opening. Once inside, they pollinate the flowers and lay their eggs before dying. Some of the flowers will become seeds and others will become nurseries for fig wasps. The tree protects each wasp egg by creating a capsule (or gall) around information technology. The gall nourishes and protects the egg equally it matures. Upon hatching, the male wasp uses its powerful jaws to cut through the female person wasp's gall in club to mate with her. Eventually the male wasps create a tunnel and so that female wasps, covered in fig pollen, tin leave the tree and fly off to commencement the remarkable story all over over again.

Parasitic Wasp

Parasitic Wasp

Parasitic wasps assault the fig wasp nursery inside the tree's fruit. They drill into the fig using a long ovipositor -- an egg-laying device that works like a hypodermic needle. Forced deep within, the ovipositor will deposit one of the parasitic wasp's eggs on a developing fig wasp. The grub that hatches volition kill the fig wasp and take over its gall. However, if the parasites are too successful and no male person fig wasps survive, they too are doomed, for they rely on their aid to escape from the fig. Without them, they will be trapped inside, and die.

Ants

Ants

Ants play many roles in this ecosystem, including serving as the sycomore's ally against parasitic wasps. Ants attack the parasitic wasps as they attempt to penetrate the fig. Ants also care for the trivial nymphs produced past a issues called Hilda, guarding them from predators and helping them feed. Only the ant's assistance is not purely altruistic, for each nymph has a hollow piercing mouthpart it uses to tap into the fig sap. The sweet liquid passes quickly though the nymphs and emerges every bit a sweet treat for the ants that they could non access on their ain.

Grey Hornbill

Grey Hornbill

Hornbills build their nest within a hollow in the fig tree. The female person lays her eggs, then seals herself inside the hollow trunk, leaving only a slit through which the male tin feed her. The hornbill must program its nest-building very advisedly -- the female has to lay her eggs so the chicks hatch just after the rains, when food volition exist plentiful. In lean times, the chick with the best hazard of survival gets to eat beginning and takes most of the food.

Nematode Worms

Nematode Worms

Nematode worms, also called roundworms, tin can be plant in almost all ecological niches. In this ecosystem, they enter the queen of copse past stowing away in the body of the tree'southward pollinator and ally, the female fig wasp. They burrow into her body and slowly eat her alive equally she makes her manner to a new tree and a new fig. Once there, these microscopic parasites burst out and kill her -- get-go a new life bicycle among the eggs she leaves behind.

Monkeys

Monkeys

Monkeys are opportunist feeders, and the queen of trees creates many chances for easy snacking. They are drawn to the cicadas that feed on the gluey-sweet sap inside the trees. Monkeys love not merely the cicadas, simply the shower of sap they vent while feeding on the tree. Ripe figs are also a great treat simply they are careful to discard those full of parasites.

Birds

Birds

More than 100 varieties of birds eat the fruit produced by fig trees, helping them spread their seeds in the process. New trees can sprout wherever the birds perch later feeding. The dark-green dove in particular loves figs. It will fly miles from its nest in guild to feed on the sycomore. After eating as many figs as it can hold, the dove makes the long expedition dwelling house, where it feeds its chicks on a milk of liquid figs.

Seed Bugs

Seed Bugs

I would call back that with all the figs falling from the tree onto the footing, new fig copse would sprout everywhere, just this is not the case. Seed bugs, which live and brood at the foot of the African queen, swallow all of the seeds that autumn. These specialized insects swallow simply fig seeds, and though they exercise non overtly damage the tree, they exercise proceed its seeds from spreading.

Fruit Bats

Fruit Bats

Fruit bats are the most of import dispersers of the fig tree's seeds. Importantly for seed dispersal, the bat rarely eats in the tree, but instead carries the fruit a short distance away. It doesn't eat the unabridged fig, simply sucks out the juice and discards the seeds. Beneath its perch, a tiny fig tree garden will sprout. Each bat eats half its weight in fig pulp every night.

Elephants

Elephants

Even elephants, which spend as much every bit 16 hours a solar day eating, enjoy the sugariness goodness of figs. African elephants as well snack on fig tree leaves and twigs. These giants travel far and wide and are thus able to disperse the fig tree's seeds during their journeys.

QueenTrees-PhotoEssay

Source: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/the-queen-of-trees-photo-essay-an-extraordinary-ecosystem/1356/

Posted by: henselpaing1953.blogspot.com

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