So after a while the besieged plant, having already lost some limbs and therefore showing tremendous restraint, judiciously begins to fill its leaves with unappetizing chemicals. At least most of the caterpillars will have eaten enough to survive, metamorphose, pollinate. Everyone in this situation comes within a hair of death to ultimately flourish. This is the push and pull of interdependence and competition. At the grand scale, no one seems to have yet won. All parties are still here, animals, plants, fungi, bacteria. What we end up with is a sort of balance in constant motion. All of this
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