Earthworms have adapted over the many years they have been around by: -Growing bristly hairs on each part of its body that are known as Setaes. Having this tiny hairs helps them move throughout the soil. -The shape itself is an adaptation becauseof how slim and narrow the body is, this also helps the Earthworm move throughout the soil and make the burrows where their habitat is known to be. -The way the Earthworm moves without legs or arms, is because of the circular muscles that surround each body segment and the longitudinal muscles that run down the length of the body. With both of these muscles, this is what makes the worm move -"In order to get food into its mouth, an earthworm pushes its pharynx out of its mouth to grasp hold of its food. It then pulls the food back into its mouth and wets it with saliva" (Source is under 'Adaptions').
It is known that some rainforest Earthworms live off of the supply of leaf litter and others live off of the supply of soil microflora.
Earthworms may dependant on plants for a source of food, but actullay, plants do need Earthworms to make the soil the plants grow in, more nurished.
Leaf Cutter Ants live in colonies and build their habitat underground. The burrows that they make have thousands of rooms and in these rooms, there is a type of fungus that grows no where else because of the way the ants treat it.
The ants go and get leaves, bring back the leaves and chew them up. The ants use the chewed up leaves to furtilize the fungus that grows in the underground rooms. The ants also chew out any weed that poses a threat to the fungus. The ants also start the fungus graden themselves because the fungus has lost the ability to do that itself. So when the queen-ant goes to start a new colony, the queen takes a peice of fungus form the old colony and starts the garden in the new one.
The reason the ants treat the fungus with such respect is because when they can't eat part of their meal (the cellulous), they feed it to the fungus, which digests it completely. Then the ants feed from the fungus.
The ants create relationships not only with this fungi, but with much smaller Leaf Cutter Ants because the smaller ants act as a gaurd to the larger ants when the larger ants go out to get leaves for feeding. They do this because when the ants carry the leaves, they have no sight of a certain type of parasitic fly that try to lay their larvae on the ants head. When the larvae hatches, the ant usually dies.
Leaf Cutter Ants are also known as Atta cephalotes.
Hercules Beetles are very large, the body itself could be up to 6.5 inches long. The horns that they have could be 2-3 inches.
There is an upper horn and a lower horn. The upper is called the horacic horn and their lower the cephalic horn. These beetles are able to move the cephalic horn up to the horacic horn so they act as pinchers. But, only males of the Hurcules Beetles have horns. Males use these horns to fight other males for mates and food.
Hercules Beetles can be eaten by large birds, reptiles, and mammals even though they can be very large. But Hercules Beetles eat a range of different foods, including fruits and other plant matter, but what these beetles like the most, is rotting wood.
Hercules Beetles have adapted to their environment by developing a hard skin that is called an exoskeleton. This helps them protect themselves from predators. They are also able to carry and lift more the 800 times their weight.
These beetles also have the ability to change the color of their forewings, which are usually yellow, can be changed to black.
Herculese Beetles are also known as Dynastes hercules.
Termites have adapted to their environment in many ways. For exaple, Termites who eat soil, have developed softer bodies.
Termites also live in nests. From living in these nests they have "a range of mechanisms such as behaivioral, biochemical, immunological, and social adaption" (Source is under the button 'Adaptions').
In rainforests, it is very common for termites to build nests underground becuase it is safer from its predators.
A Termites diet can vary from soil, to dead wood, to leaf litter. Termites are also known as Termitoidae.
Fungi are different than plants. First, Fungi does not contain clorophyll, instead they get their food from scavanging it from other sources.
Fungi are more related to animals than to plants becuas their walls contain chiten.
"Adaptations are specific to the type of mushroom. Morel mushrooms, for example, are able to survive harsh weather conditions with a sclerotium, a component that grows underground and protects the fungi mycelium until conditions permit it to grow" (Source can be found under the button 'Adaption').