What do you mean by interspecific interactions?
(b) Briefly explain the predation and parasitism types of interactions with examples.

Explanation

Interspecific interaction. Interactions between two different species which may be beneficial (+ve) for both or harmful (-ve) for both or one may be benefitted, other may be harmed or remains inaffected or one may be harmed and other remains unaffected.
Predation may be defined as that type association between two species in which one of them, called Predator which chases, captures, kills and eats the other called Prey. Some common examples of predation are as follows :-
(i) Lions, Tigers and Panthers are the predators whereas the herbivorous jungle animals like zebra, deer which are chased, captured, killed and eaten by these predators are the preys.
(ii) Snake is a predator and mouse, frog etc. are the preys.
(iii) Grasshopper and some small insects are the preys for Frog. Frog is prey for Snake. Snake is a prey for a Peacock, Eagle and Hawk.
Parasitism is an act of an organism called parasite in obtaining nourishment from another organism called host and spending a part or whole of its life on or inside the body of host. Parasites are host specific, small in size and high reproductive potential but poor means of dispersal.
Type. (i) Ectoparasites. They are parasites which live on the body of other organism permanently, (a) Human louse spreads diseases like typhus, (b) Bedbug feeds on human blood spreading diseases, (c) Tick (d) Itch Mite (e) Rat-flea spreads plague (f) Mosquitoes and leech.
(ii) Endoparasites. They are parasites which reside inside body of host, (e.g., Plasmodium or malaria parasite), Trichonella, body fluid parasites (e.g., Trypanosoma) and gut parasites (e.g., Tapeworm, Roundworm).