Overview & Lesson Sequence

Focus on Standards & Assessment

Materials Needed, Preparation & Planning, Management Strategies

Background Info

Intro Activity
Why Study Predator - Prey interactions?

Activity 1
Observation of a predator-prey interaction

Activity 2
What makes a predator successful?

Research Project
Designing a predator - prey experiment

Optional Activity
Biological Control vs. Pesticides

Case Study
Rabbits in Australia

References

Glossary

Suppliers

Resource Sheets

Enforcers Home

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Glossary

Biological control the use of natural enemies (predators, parasites, etc…) to control a pest population.

Diapause  a period of dormancy in insects in which metabolic rate is reduced and growth and differentiation temporarily cease.

Ectotherm  an organism that receives its body heat from the surrounding environment.

Hemolymph the term for insect blood.

Host plant  the plant on which an insect feeds.  Many insects are adapted to feed on only one type or family of plants.

Immunocontraception  the use of genetic engineering to induce an organism’s immune system to attack the reproductive cells and thus prevent the process of fertilization.

Insect growth regulator (IGR) a natural or man-made chemical used to disrupt the normal growth and development of an insect either by affecting the hormonal system or exoskeleton development.

Mammal  a vertebrate animal the female of which suckles her young.

Marsupial  a mammal of which the female carries her young in an external pouch.

Monoculture the cultivation of a single crop, excluding all others.

Morphology the study of form and structure.

Myxomatosis  the rabbit disease caused by the Myxoma Pox virus and transmitted by infected fleas and mosquitoes.

Parasite  an often harmful organism that lives on or in a different organism.

Parasitoid  an organism that feeds on another animal and consumes all or most of its tissue thus killing it.

Siphunculus  one of a pair of tubular outgrowths on the posterior part of the abdomen of aphids.  Siphunculi produce defensive chemicals in some aphid species and are sometimes called cornicles.