CONTENTS Introduction African Death’s-Head Hawkmoth and Western Honey Bee Ant Plant and Golden Ant Australian Clownfish and Bubble-Tip Anemone Australian Garden Orb Weaver Spider and Golden-Tipped Bat Barnacle and Grey Whale Blue-Banded Bee and Climbing Guinea Flower Boxer Crab and Sea Anemone Brown-Throated Three-Toed Sloth and Sloth Moth Bullhorn Acacia and Acacia Ant Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon and Garden Wolf Spider Candy Stripe Pistol Shrimp and Black-Ray Goby Cape Sugarbird and King Protea Caribou and Arctic Fox Cat, Brain Parasite, and Common Rat Colombian Lesserblack Tarantula and Dotted Humming Frog Common Eastern Firefly and Femme Fatale Firefly Common Jack Mackerel and Tongue-Biting Louse Common Raven and Grey Wolf Common Warthog and Banded Mongoose Drooping She-Oak and Glossy Black Cockatoo Eastern Screech-Owl and Texas Blind Snake Egyptian Spiny-Tailed Lizard and Arabian Fattail Scorpion Emperor Shrimp and Spanish Dancer Emu and Desert Quandong Eucalyptus Tree, Bell Miner, and Psyllid Fire Urchin and Carrier Crab Floreana Lava Lizard and Marine Iguana Flowering Eucalyptus and Little Red Flying Fox Galapagos Dove and Opuntia Cactus Golden Jackal and Bengal Tiger Grass Trigger Plant and Reed Bee Grazing Animals and Cattle Egret Green-Banded Broodsac and Amber Snail Green Sea Turtle and Yellow Tang Heath’s Tick and Mountain Pygmy Possum Kinkajou and Balsa Tree Laysan Albatross and Ocean Sunfish Leadbeater’s Possum and Goblin Flea Leopard Coral Grouper and Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse Leopard Sea Cucumber and Pinhead Pearlfish Monarch Butterfly and Viceroy Butterfly Moreton Bay Fig and Fig Wasp Northern Bettong and Truffles Oak Tree and Eastern Chipmunk Oceanic Whitetip Shark and Pilot Fish Painted Honeyeater and Grey Mistletoe Pea Crab and Blue Mussel Pink-Tailed Worm-Lizard and Tyrant Ant Pitcher Plant and Mountain Treeshrew Pseudoscorpion and Giant Harlequin Beetle Red Weaver Ant and Soft Scale Bug Sea Squirt and Spotted Handfish Sponge Decorator Crab and Sea Sponge Stinking Corpse Lily and Liana Vine Sweet Bursaria, Eltham Copper Butterfly, and Notoncus Ant Tea Tree and Lord Howe Island Stick Insect Vampire Finch and Nazca Booby Verco’s Nudibranch and Bryozoan White Suckerfish and Reef Manta Ray Yucca Plant and Yucca Moth Resources About the Author INTRODUCTION Inside this illustrated encyclopedia you’ll uncover some of the most bizarre, wonderful, and downright disturbing creature connections nature has to offer. Companionship in the wild—known as “symbiois”—comes in many forms. The simplest, happiest kind of friendship is called “mutualism,” which is when different animals or plants share a relationship that mutually benefits them both throughout their lives. But that’s only the beginning; relationships can be complicated, and it’s no different in the natural world! Pairings among plants and animals fall into three categories. MUTUALISM: Both sides of the partnership benefit from their relationship. COMMENSALISM: Only one side of the partnership benefits from their relationship, while the other is unaffected. PARASITISM: One side of the partnership benefits and the other is negatively affected. Within these categories there are further distinctions. OBLIGATE MUTUALISM: The pair cannot survive without one another. FACULTATIVE MUTUALISM: Both sides of the partnership can survive on their own, but it is more beneficial for the pair to stay together. MÜLLERIAN MIMICRY: Two or more unrelated toxic, or poisonous, creatures evolve to resemble one another. INQUILINISM (COMMENSALISM): One side of the partnership permanently lives on the other. PHORESY (COMMENSALISM): One side of the partnership uses the other as a means of transportation. PREDATION: One side of the partnership preys upon and kills the other side, usually as a key food source in its diet. You will find examples of all these curious behaviors in this book. As with my previous books in this series, A Curious Collection of Peculiar Creatures and A Curious Collection of Dangerous Creatures, I hope you’ll see the natural world as I do, filled with astonishing, inspiring, and downright weird (in a good way!) plants and animals. With so many of their habitats endangered around the world, they’re counting on us to discover all the amazing ways they’ve adapted to work together to survive—so that we can help them, too! Sami Bayly AFRICAN DEATH’S-HEAD HAWKMOTH WESTERN HONEY BEE COMMENSALISM Acherontia atropos (a-ker-on-tee-a a-tro-pos) Apis mellifera (a-piss mel-if-er-a) With a wingspan of 3.5 to 5 inches (9–13 cm), the African death’s-head hawkmoth is much larger than the western honey bee, whose wingspan measures less than an inch (1–2 cm) across. But that doesn’t stop the hawkmoth from pretending to be a bee so it can steal the precious honey from their hives! How does it trick the bees? First, it camouflages itself with a chemical scent that makes it smell just like a honey bee. Second, it makes a high-pitched squeak, or chirp, that may mimic a sound the queen bee makes to calm the worker bees. If the hawkmoth is discovered, though, the bees will turn against the intruder and kill it. Conservation Status UNKNOWN/DATA DEFICIENT Researchers have not determined the conservation status of the African death’s-head hawkmoth or the western honey bee. However, we do know that insecticides used to kill pests often end up killing hawkmoths instead.