Deck 14: Herbivory

Question 1

Which of the following taxa are NOT herbivores?

A) Gall makers
B) Leaf miners
C) Bark beetles
D) Tapeworms
E) Goats

Answer 1

Tapeworms

Question 2

Which of the following taxa suck sap in African acacia trees?

A) Bush babies
B) Bruchid beetles
C) Saturniid moth caterpillars
D) Gall makers
E) Grasshoppers

Answer 2

Bush babies

Question 3

Plants with one or a few apical meristems, such as palms, often protect them with

A) Sticky hairs
B) Alkaloids
C) Terpenes
D) Phenolics
E) Spines

Answer 3

Spines

Question 4

Why don't we see more plant material eaten by herbivores?

A) Herbivore populations self regulate
B) Natural enemies reduce herbivore densities
C) Plants have chemical and mechanical defenses
D) a and b
E) b and c

Question 5

In Australia, nearly 90% of cactus plants on islands with cattle have spines whereas on islands with no grazers, only about 20% of the pads possess them. This supports the idea of

A) Plant apparency
B) Constitutive defenses
C) The optimal defense hypothesis
D) Induced defenses
E) The carbon-nitrogen balance hypothesis

Question 6

Alkaloids usually

A) contain a ring of carbon known as a benzene ring
B) are synthesized from five carbon isoprene units
C) contain nitrogen and have a cyclic, ring like structure
D) contain high levels of sulfur
E) none of the other answers are correct

Question 7

Alkaloids are basic, or alkaline molecules. Which is not a type of alkaloid?

A) Caffeine
B) Nicotine
C) Morphine
D) Quinine
E) Tannin

Question 8

Grasses sequester silica which makes them difficult to chew. This defense is

A) Mechanical
B) Chemical
C) Associational resistance
D) Mutualism with a defensive agent
E) Semiochemical

Question 9

Atropine, a poison derived from deadly nightshade, is classified as (an)

A) Terpene
B) Phenolic
C) Alkaloid
D) Flavonoid
E) Primary metabolite

Question 10

Which is not a common catergory of phenolic?

A) Flavonoid
B) Tannin
C) Lignin
D) Terpenoid

Question 11

The flavor of wine comes from

A) Alkaloids
B) Tannins
C) Terpenoids
D) a and b
E) b and c

Question 12

The flavors of chocolate and vanilla come from

A) Tannins
B) Terpenes
C) Lignins
D) Flavonoids
E) Alkaloids

Question 13

Many forest streams have a coffee color because the water leaching from the fallen leaves is rich in

A) Tannins
B) Alkaloids.
C) Carbohydrates
D) Alkaloids
E) Sugars

Question 14

Cloves, ginger and cinnamon owe their flavor to molecules classified as

A) Alkaloids
B) Phenolics
C) Tannins
D) Terpenoids
E) Alcohols

Question 15

Secondary metabolites synthesized from five-carbon isoprene units and common in spices are likely to be

A) Alkaloids
B) Phenolics
C) Terpenoids

Question 16

Unapparent plants

A) Are large and difficult to find
B) Have qualitative defenses
C) Have defenses which guard against specialist herbivores
D) Often occur in monocultures
E) Are long lived

Question 17

Chemicals which act as sex attractants between insect herbivores, and which are mimicked by some plants, are known as

A) Pheromones
B) Optimal defense compounds
C) Plant analog hormones
D) Semi allelochemicals
E) Air borne messengers

Question 18

Which type of food plant/algae is subject to the highest levels of herbivory by herbivores?

A) Terrestrial plants
B) Aquatic plants
C) Aquatic algae
D) Terrestrial algae

Question 19

Which of the following examples shows a strong impact of herbivores on native vegetation?

A) Beetles on klamath weed in California
B) Weevils on floating fern in New Guinea
C) Goats on Santa Catalina island
D) Moths on prickly pear in Australia
E) Toads on waterweeds in New Jersey

Question 20

Which organism successfully controlled cacti in Australia?

A) Cyrtobagous weevils
B) Cactoblastis caterpillars
C) Reindeer
D) Rabbits
E) Feral pigs

Question 21

Animal tissue generally contains about ____ times as much nitrogen as plant tissue, so high nitrogen plants are favored by herbivores.

A) 2
B) 5
C) 10
D) 20
E) 50

Question 22

Monophagous herbivores generally feed on a wide variety of host plant species.

Question 23

Constitutive defenses are only switched on when herbivores attack.

Question 24

Organisms generally have to digest large amounts of plants containing phenolics to discourage them from feeding.

Question 25

Oak trees generally contain quantitative defenses.

Question 26

The defenses of apparent plants are mainly qualitative.

Question 27

Chemical defenses are found only in plants.

Question 28

Herbivory rates generally go down as plant growth rates increase.

Question 29

Invertebrate grazers, such as grasshoppers, tend to have greater impacts on host plants than vertebrate grazers, such as bison.