MWP admin wrote:Maybe my biology needs some polishing, but is it really parasitism a form of symbiosis? Is symbiosis when the 2 organsisms benefit from each other (ore there is no harm affeced to the other)?
Symbiosis is
any kind of relationship between two species, even predation and herbivory are types of symbiosis.
Actually there are more than three types of symbiosis:
1) neutralism (not really a type of symbiosis in the 'classic' sense, this means that two species living in the same habitat without overlapping niches, meaning that none of them is affected by other eg. mosquito and beetle)
2) competition (both species are inhibited by each other eg. grey squirrel vs red squirrel)
3) mutualism (organisms are partners and usually cannot exist without each other eg. a lichen, mycorrizhae)
4) proto-cooperation (organisms are not necessarily dependent upon one another, but when they are both present the result is a positive one for both eg. oak tree and woodpecker)
5) commensalism (obligatory for one species, the other is unaffected eg. barnacles on whales, worms in hermit crab shells)
6) amensalism (one species inhibited, the other unaffected eg. rabbit and cow)
7) parasitism (eg. rabbit and fleas)

predation/ herbivory (eg. lion and zebra, zebra and grass)