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After Mr. Wei leaves, Jesse takes a closer look at the organisms within the enclosure. He notices a few things. There is a grasshopper nibbling on the plants on the bottom of the cage. “I wonder if that’s who is eating the lettuce.” One of the butterflies flies out from under the pile of rocks in one corner. A few carpenter ants are digging a hole in the soil and Jesse sees a few other ants carrying pieces of green lettuce across the ground. “Nope, it’s the ants!” The stick bug is cam- ouflaged on a branch, soaking up the warmth of the heat lamp. Gabriella comes over to take a look, too. “It’s one giant food web.” “That’s just what I was thinking,” Jesse said. “I have seen two food chains at work already.” “Oh yeah. I forgot that you could break down a food web into different interconnected food chains.” Jesse pointed to the ants. “Look at those ants. They are digging in the soil. I think they are eating the bacteria that live there. And they are ripping parts of the leaves off the plants and the lettuce that Mr. Wei put in there.” “And imagine what would happen if we dropped another animal in there. What if we added a frog in there?” “The frog would probably love to get its tongue on those grasshoppers.” “Wow,” Gabriella said, “It’s a lot easier to trace a food web when you can actually see it at work. The energy from the plants is being transferred to the grasshopper which would go to the frog if we added it in there.”

A colony of ants is part of the food webs in many ecosystems.

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