Food Web and Food Chain - ESL worksheet by LianSuzy - Free Printable

Let’s go through each question step by step.

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Question 1: Look at this food chain.

The food chain is:
lettuce → greenfly → ladybug → thrush → cat

This means:
- Lettuce is eaten by greenfly.
- Greenfly is eaten by ladybug.
- Ladybug is eaten by thrush.
- Thrush is eaten by cat.

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a) What does the arrow mean in a food chain?

In any food chain, arrows show the direction of energy flow — from what is being eaten to what eats it. So, the arrow points from the food to the eater.

✔ Answer: FLOW OF ENERGY FROM FOOD TO EATER

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b) Name the producer in the food chain.

Producers are organisms that make their own food (usually plants). In this chain, lettuce is the only plant — it doesn’t eat anything else; it starts the chain.

✔ Answer: LETTUCE

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c) Name the third trophic level in the food chain.

Trophic levels count how many steps up the chain you are:

- Level 1: Producer → lettuce
- Level 2: Primary consumer → greenfly (eats lettuce)
- Level 3: Secondary consumer → ladybug (eats greenfly)

So the third trophic level is the ladybug.

✔ Answer: LADYBUG

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d) Name the tertiary consumer in the food chain.

“Tertiary” means third-level consumer — so we’re looking for the animal that eats the secondary consumer.

Let’s list them again:

- Lettuce → producer
- Greenfly → primary consumer (level 2)
- Ladybug → secondary consumer (level 3)
- Thrush → tertiary consumer (level 4) ← eats ladybug
- Cat → quaternary consumer (level 5) ← eats thrush

So the tertiary consumer is the thrush.

✔ Answer: THRUSH

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Question 2: Look at these food chains and the food web.

Food chains given:

1. grass → slug → thrush → cat
2. grass → slug → fox
3. grass → rabbit → fox
4. grass → rabbit → cat

And there’s a food web diagram with arrows already partially drawn (one arrow added as example).

We need to fill in the rest of the arrows based on the food chains.

But since the worksheet says “One has been added for you,” and we can see from the image that an arrow goes from grass to slug (which matches chain #1 and #2), we’ll use all four chains to draw the full web.

From the chains:

- Grass is eaten by: slug, rabbit
- Slug is eaten by: thrush, fox
- Rabbit is eaten by: fox, cat
- Thrush is eaten by: cat
- Fox eats: slug, rabbit
- Cat eats: thrush, rabbit

Now let’s answer the questions using the completed food web.

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b) Name the producer in this food web.

Again, producers are plants that start the chain. Here, only grass makes its own food.

✔ Answer: GRASS

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c) Name a consumer in this food web.

Consumers are animals that eat other things. Any of these work: slug, rabbit, thrush, cat, fox.

You can name one or more — the answer key shows all of them.

✔ Answer: SLUG, RABBIT, THRUSH, CAT, FOX

*(Any one would be correct, but listing all is fine too.)*

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d) What eats rabbits?

Look at the food chains:

- Chain 3: grass → rabbit → fox → so fox eats rabbit
- Chain 4: grass → rabbit → cat → so cat eats rabbit

Also, in the food web, arrows point from rabbit to fox and rabbit to cat.

✔ Answer: FOX AND A CAT

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e) What does a fox eat?

From the chains:

- Chain 2: grass → slug → fox → so fox eats slug
- Chain 3: grass → rabbit → fox → so fox eats rabbit

In the food web, arrows point from slug to fox and rabbit to fox.

✔ Answer: RABBITS AND SLUGS

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Final Answer:

1a) FLOW OF ENERGY FROM FOOD TO EATER
1b) LETTUCE
1c) LADYBUG
1d) THRUSH
2b) GRASS
2c) SLUG, RABBIT, THRUSH, CAT, FOX
2d) FOX AND A CAT
2e) RABBITS AND SLUGS