NATURAL PARTNERSHIPS: The Story of Symbiosis

Mutualism, commensalism, parasitism--several examples of each, on land and in the sea, depicted in delicate illustrations. The different kinds of symbiosis--represented in yucca plant and moth, wormlike Urechis and its roommates, fire ant and its host--are indicated in the beginning, but the rest of the book is structured around the relationship of the organisms--plant-plant, plant-animal, animal-animal--and a closing chapter makes token acknowledgement of symbiosis as part of the ecological scheme. The illustrations, alternately full-color and black and white, take advantage of the large format and are both attractive and instructive. Not as broad a survey as Dudley's Partners in Nature, this is less ambitious in coverage but equally lucid.