With regard to their nutrition, the organisms of an ecosystem are connected in the form of a chain or - in many relationships - in the form of a web. This book treats the interactions between predator and prey or host and parasite and further interesting aspects such as the production of toxins as defence mechanism.

Klappentext

Vertical food web interactions are strongly influenced by the life history of the partners involved. Typical examples are presented for plant-phytophage and host-parasite systems and for multitrophic interactions, as well as for chemoecological aspects of the interactions. This volume brings together theoretical and practical aspects of vertical food web interactions and analyses how particular patterns evolved independently on different trophic levels and in different habitats.

Inhalt
A Plant-Insect Relationships: Life-History and Evolution of Tephritid Flies.- 1 The Sympatric Origin of Phytophagous Insects.- 2 Host Race Formation in Tephritis conura: Determinants from Three Trophic Levels.- 3 Symphagy Among Florivorous Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) in Southern California.- 4 Establishment of Urophora cardui (Diptera: Tephritidae) on Canada Thistle, Cirsium arvense (Asteraceae), and Colony Development in Relation to Habitat and Parasitoids in Canada.- B Host-Parasite Interactions.- 5 Host Relationships at Reversed Generation Times: Margaritifera (Bivalvia) and Salmonids.- 6 The Community Structure of Ticks on Kudu, Tragelaphus strepsiceros, in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.- 7 The Epidemiology of Parasitic Diseases in Daphnia.- C Aspects of Chemical Ecology in Different Food Chains.- 8 Inter- and Intraspecific Transfer of Toxic Insect Compound Cantharidin.- 9 Survival in a Hostile Environment. Evaluation of the Developmental Success of the Oligophagous Leaf Beetle Chrysomela vigintipunctata (Scop).- 10 Ecdysteroids in Pycnogonids: Hormones and Interspecific Allelochemicals.- D Phytophages and Their Enemies: Interactions Between Aphids and Their Predators and Parasitoids.- 11 Growth and Development in Parasitoid Wasps: Adaptation to Variable Host Resources.- 12 Patch Quality and Fitness in Predatory Ladybirds.- 13 Interactions Between Ants and Aphid Parasitoids: Patterns and Consequences for Resource Utilization.- 14 The Relative Importance of Host Plants, Natural Enemies and Ants in the Evolution of Life-History Characters in Aphids.- E Community Organization and Diversity in Multitrophic Terrestrial Systems.- 15 Diversities of Aphidopha in Relationship to Local Dynamics of Some Host Alternating Aphid Species.- 16 Organization Patterns in a Tritrophic Plant-Insect System: Hemipteran Communities in Hedges and Forest Margins.- 17 Biodiversity in Three Trophic Levels of the Vineyard Agro-Ecosystem in Northern Switzerland.- 18 Landscape Dynamics, Plant Architecture and Demography, and the Response of Herbivores.- F Synopsis.- 19 Evolutionary Patterns and Driving Forces in Vertical Food Web Interactions.- Species Index.