- What are insectivorous animals?
- General characteristics of insectivores
- Insectivorous mammals
- Insectivorous birds
- Insectivorous reptiles and amphibians
- Insectivorous arthropods
- Insectivorous fish
- Insectivorous plants
We explain what are insectivorous animals, their characteristics and examples of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, arthropods and more.
What are insectivorous animals?
In biologyInsectivores are those carnivorous animals that have a diet composed exclusively or mainly of insects.
If we consider that insects are the class of living beings most numerous and diverse of our planet (representing 90% of the entire life that exists), we will understand that they are part of the favorite diet of many species of living beings, despite the fact that, for entirely cultural reasons, the human being is not commonly one of them.
Insectivorous animals are also diverse and numerous, and may be specialized in the predation of certain types of insects, or of any one, such as the anteater, whose name already tells us what type of insects constitute its favorite dish. Many insects survive on insectivorous diets and there are even plants that extract nutrients from the insects that they manage to trap and digest (the famous carnivorous plants).
This gives us an idea of the ecological importance of insects throughout the world, and therefore, of the insectivorous animals that keep their populations at bay, playing a vital role in the food chain and in the balance of ecosystems. We can find them in almost all habitats in which there are insects, in some cases even under the surface of the water.
Finally, in the case of human beings, the ingestion of insects is not usually popular among the cultures of the world, except for certain specific regions, in which they are part of the ancestral heritage, such as the Mexican chapulines (grasshoppers) or Mexican dishes. with ants from Asia.
General characteristics of insectivores
The only common characteristic of insectivorous animals is that they eat insects. The insects they eat and what strategies they employ to hunt them can vary greatly depending on the species, as well as the habitat in which they live and prey.
In many cases, however, a specialized insect diet is accompanied by adaptations of the body to capture them more easily, sometimes directly in their burrows, or methods of acute perception to find them (sight, smell, etc.). They may also develop relationships symbiotic with other larger living beings, devouring insects that parasitizesuch as ticks and bed bugs.
Insectivorous mammals
More than 400 species of mammals they feed on the insects they manage to hunt. They are usually small in size and many of them have special adaptations to better satisfy their diet, such as sticky tongues to insert into nests (such as the so-called anteater) or location systems (such as bats).
On the other hand, others have learned to use certain techniques or tools to feed themselves, such as some apes that insert a branch into a nest in order to put insects in their mouths.
Some species of insect-eating mammals include bats, anteaters, mongooses, mongooses, meerkats, moles, mice, porcupines, pangolins, and armadillos, as well as some species of apes.
Insectivorous birds
An immense number of small and medium-sized birds are totally or partially insectivorous. They usually hunt flying insects directly in the air, or on tree branches, especially when it is caterpillar season and these nutritious larvae make their appearance on plant leaves.
Some birds have specialized beaks that allow them to drill into the wood and extract nesting insects or dig them up during their larval stages.
Species such as robins, goldfinches, nightingales, thrushes, swallows, larks, blackbirds, starlings, woodpeckers, and some species of magpies are purely insectivorous. On the other hand, species omnivorous like chickens, ducks and turkeys, on the other hand, they tend to supplement a good part of their diet through the ingestion of insects.
Insectivorous reptiles and amphibians
Insects are the preferred prey of many species of reptiles small, as well as some species during their growth, since afterwards their diet is replaced by meat from larger animals. The amphibians they are a notorious case, especially frogs and toads that have agile and sticky tongues with which to catch insects and swallow them without chewing.
Examples of insectivorous reptiles and amphibians are: chameleons, lizards, some species of snakes, toads, frogs and salamanders, newts, and baby crocodiles.
Insectivorous arthropods
Not because they are insects, do some species stop eating other insects. In fact, the most numerous predators of insects on the planet are themselves, or others arthropodslike spiders or scorpions. The former, above all, are famous flying insect hunters, thanks to their almost invisible fabrics in which they wait for an unsuspecting insect to remain attached.
Other great predators of insects are the mantises (or the "praying mantis"), whose upper limbs are agile forceps with which to hold other insects to eat them alive, and even some species of wasps, flies and ants that tend to hunt other insects. to feed their young.
Insectivorous fish
The fish feed on insects that fall into the water, or that reproduce on the surface of lakes or rivers, or that make some kind of amphibian life. There are even species that spit jets of water from their mouths to knock down insects and thus be able to later devour them, such as the archer fish (Jaculatrix toxotes).
Carp, "spit" fish, catfish, and numerous other opportunistic species are examples of fish that eat insects.
Insectivorous plants
In addition to the animals that we have already named, we must mention the carnivorous plants, whose name would have to be insectivorous, since insects are what they manage to trap and digest through different mechanisms of seduction and deception.
To achieve this, they emit an intense smell - very sweet or, on the contrary, similar to that of decomposed meat - to attract unsuspecting insects that, believing that they are about to have a feast, enter their flowers or their different specialized conduits. , of which then they cannot get out.
Depending on the plant species, this strategy may include sticky secretions, leaves that close on the insect, or long, slippery tubes through which they cannot return to the surface. Examples of these plants are those of the genus Utricularia, Nepenthales, Genlisea, Heliamphora, Sarracenia or the famous Dionaea muscipula, known as "Venus flytrap".