Category Environment

Plants that grow on other plants using them only for support are called epiphytes. They have no roots in the soil. Epiphytes do not parasitize the plants they grow on.

Camouflage is the disguise used by animals to hide from their enemies. Men also use camouflage, particularly in wars. Most animals use camouflage to hide from predators or other animals that prey on them. Camouflaging is done by adopting matching colour to the surroundings, so that one looks like a part of it.

An animal which obtains food by hunting other animals is called a predator. 

 It is an opposite process of hibernation. Some animals go under the ground during the dry season of summer. In zoology it is a state of inactivity and reduced metabolic activity that occurs during the dry season in species such as lungfish and snails. 

Animals and plants which live on the bottom of the sea or lake are called benthos. 

Very small plants and animals living in water are called planktons. They are an important source of food for larger water animals.

Parasites are those animals or plants which live on the living plants and in the bodies of living animals. Parasites that live inside the host such as liver flukes and tapeworms are called entroparasites; those that live on exterior, such as fleas and lice are called ectoparasites. They are harmful for the host.

The living beings that feed on dead or decayed organic matter are called saprophytes. Most saprophytes are fungi and bacteria which contain no chlorophyll. Many other animals eat dead plants and animal matter. They are useful scavengers and in sewage farms and refuse dumps break down organic matter into nutrients and easily assimilable by green plants. 

When food chains are interconnected in an ecosystem they are called food webs. Sometimes one type of plant or animal is eaten by more than one kind of animal. In this way, two or more than two food chains get interconnected and form a food web. The more complex food web shows a greater variety of relationships. 

 In ecology, a sequence showing feeding relationship between organisms in particular ecosystem is known as food chain. Each organism depends on the next lowest member of the chain for its food. For example, grass is eaten by a deer and deer is eaten by a lion. Other examples of food chains are algae-duck-otter and flower-butterfly-lizard-snake-peacock.