1 Comment June 7th, 2010

Give examples of parasitism, mutualism and commensalism in the tropical rainforest biome of Hawaii?

Brianna D asked:


I am working on gathering information for a paper and was looking for additional information on these areas

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One Response to “Give examples of parasitism, mutualism and commensalism in the tropical rainforest biome of Hawaii?”

  1. djddan Says:
    June 8th, 2010 at 1:21 pm

    Mutualism (both symbiotic partners benefit) Woodpecker peck out insects from a tree. It helps the tree so the insects don’t eat the tree completely away, say for example a termite. The bird is helped by the food. Both benefit. The insects inside the tree, eating away, are an infestation, an example of parasitism. Or say sea lice on a Hawaiian monk seal. When the bird builds a nest in the tree it is commensalism where one party benefits and the other neither benefits or is harmed. The bird has a shelter inside the tree. A hollow area. I’ll look on the Internet for specific kinds of woodpeckers or other birds of Hawaii as well as what some of the tree species are of that area and maybe see if termites and other things have to be a specific genus and species or if worldwide it is the same exact species. Get back to this.

    Edit: Found a list of specific tree species of Hawaii. Any one of those could be used for your paper. Now on to birds if at all possible. The insects should all be the same regardless of Hawaii or not.

    Found birds of Hawaii but didn’t see a woodpecker per se. Unless some of these other birds I’m sure eat insects and will peck away at a tree to get at them too.

    I never realized how many different species of woodpeckers there are. There must be over 100. One of those I’m sure lives in Hawaii. Just can’t click on all 100 and read through those. Does it have to be a specific species? Might not perhaps.

    Okay, the akiapolaau if I’m spelling it right, way down at the bottom of this link could be used instead.