The Food Web Story Read the story below and match each organism mentioned with one of the four categories below. You may also wish to make a sketch of the entire food web. On a bright spring day the sun shines onto the forest floor. The warm weather and the moist soil cause plants to sprout. The old oak trees unfold their new leaves, and within a matter of days the leaves begin to produce food by photosynthesis.
Mushrooms pop up around rotting logs, and beetle larvae feast on the fungus and decayed wood.
Soon the spring warmth triggers the hatching of linden looper caterpillar eggs, and these young caterpillars crawl onto the tender oak leaves and begin feeding. The doe rubs her leg against a rough tree because a flea has just bitten her. Earthworms tunnel through the moist earth, leaving behind little piles of soil in which wildflower seeds will sprout. Aphids find the young oak leaves juicy and nourishing. The aphids stick their needlelike mouth parts into the oak's stems and suck its juice.