User:Fama Clamosa/Sandbox2

= Zoology =

A list of cool animals.

Collectivism
There are animals and plants that live so closely together for so long, that they become dependent of each other. This kind of long-time cooperation is called a symbiosis.

In the forests of Central America, the Acacia ant lives in symbiosis with the Bull's horn acacia. The ants act as gardeners and in reward the tree supply the ants with food.

Young ant queens leave older ant colonies to establish new colonies. Once an ant queen has found a suitable acacia tree, she lies 15 to 20 eggs in one of the tree's horn-like thorns. The colony then grows to hundreds of ants in a few months, to more than 1.000 in two years, and to more than 4.000 in three years.

At first there are few ants, so they hide as much as possible inside the tree to protect themselves. But when there are more than 400 ants, they start to protect the tree. Day and night, the ants aggressively attack animals attempting to eat the leaves of the tree. They kill insects such as crickets and sting large animals such as goats. The ants also destroy other competing plants growing near the acacia or on its branches.

In return, the tree supplies the ants with nectar and packages of protein on its leaves. The tree only produces these small packages to provide food to the ants and the ants get very angry if anything threatens their food.

So, the tree needs the ants to protect itself, and the ants need the tree to get food and to use as their home.

(Physalia physalis) C (Porifera) Good (Scleractinia) B (Globitermes sulphureus) Start (Allomerus decemarticulatus) Unass
 * New Zealand batfly (Mystacinobia zealandica) Start
 * Portuguese Man o' War
 * Sponges
 * Stony corals
 * Tar-baby termite
 * Trap ant

Defensive tactics

 * armored shrew
 * balloon fish
 * bombardier beetles
 * bushy-tailed wood rat
 * electric eel
 * glaucus
 * goliath tarantula
 * honey badger
 * hooded pitohui
 * mimic octopus
 * sea cucumbers
 * slow loris
 * springtails

Quest for food

 * ant lions
 * aye-aye
 * bolas spiders
 * bulldog bat
 * candirú
 * common chameleon
 * cone shells
 * cookie-cutter shark
 * egg-eating snake
 * fat innkeeper
 * gharial
 * giant anteater
 * harpy eagle
 * kiwis
 * luminous gnat
 * mantis shrimps
 * megamouth shark
 * portia spider
 * purse-web spider
 * shrews
 * spitting spider
 * triclads
 * velvet worms

Locomotion

 * bee hummingbird
 * common swift
 * emperor penguin
 * european eel
 * flying dragons
 * four-wing flying fish
 * grant’s golden mole
 * leatherback turtle
 * northern bluefin tuna
 * sea lamprey
 * sloths
 * stenus rove beetles
 * stowaway false scorpion
 * tokay gecko
 * white worm lizard

Parenthood

 * bee wolf
 * blue whale
 * burying beetles
 * fig wasps
 * king cobra
 * malleefowl
 * marble gall wasp
 * platypus
 * red-and-blue poison-arrow frog
 * sand tiger shark
 * ship timber beetle

Parasitism

 * alcon blue butterfly
 * ant-decapitating flies
 * bird fluke
 * cod worm
 * cricket fly
 * giant roundworm
 * gordian worms
 * guinea worm
 * human botfly
 * leaf wasps
 * rabbit flea
 * red-tailed wasp
 * sabre wasp
 * sacculina
 * strepsipterans
 * warble flies

Sex

 * blue-headed wrasse
 * cockroach wasp
 * deep-sea angler fish
 * green spoon worm
 * narwhal
 * palolo worms
 * pocketbook mussels
 * spotted hyena
 * surinam toad
 * taita hills caecilian
 * tarantula hawks
 * transvestite rove beetle

Extreme environments

 * Antarctic toothfish
 * beard worms
 * coconut crab
 * coelacanth
 * giant mudskipper
 * giant squid
 * hagfish
 * human
 * Lake Titicaca frog
 * lungfish
 * marine iguana
 * olm
 * sperm whale
 * sun spiders
 * symbion
 * water bears
 * water spider
 * zombie worm