17-504: The Afroinsectiphilia (African insectivores ) is a clade that has been proposed based on the results of recent molecular phylogenetic studies. Many of the taxa within it were once regarded as part of the order Insectivora , but Insectivora is now considered to be polyphyletic and obsolete. This proposed classification is based on molecular studies only, and there is no morphological evidence for it. The golden moles , otter shrews and tenrecs are part of this clade. Some also regard
34-405: A protein supplement, particularly when they are breeding. Examples of insectivores include different kinds of species of carp , opossum , frogs , lizards (e.g. chameleons , geckos ), nightingales , swallows , echidnas , numbats , anteaters , armadillos , aardvarks , pangolins , aardwolfs , bats , and spiders . Even large mammals are recorded as eating insects; the sloth bear
51-664: A P4 metacone and absence of parastyles on M1–2. Additional features uniting ptolemaiidans and tubulidentates specifically include hypsodont molars that wear down to a flat surface; a long and shallow mandible with an elongated symphyseal region; and trigonids and talonids that are separated by lateral constrictions. Procaviidae [REDACTED] Trichechidae [REDACTED] Dugongidae [REDACTED] Elephantidae [REDACTED] Orycteropodidae [REDACTED] Macroscelididae [REDACTED] Chrysochloridae [REDACTED] Potamogalidae [REDACTED] Tenrecidae [REDACTED] Insectivore An insectivore
68-557: A restrictive diet, such as certain parasitoids and hunting wasps , are specialized to exploit particular species, not insects in general. Indeed, much as large mantids and spiders will do, the larger varieties of pitcher plants have been known to consume vertebrates such as small rodents and lizards. Charles Darwin wrote the first well-known treatise on carnivorous plants in 1875. Eulipotyphla Eulipotyphla ( / ˌ j uː l ɪ p oʊ ˈ t ɪ f l ə / , from eu- + Lipotyphla ; sometimes called true insectivores )
85-742: A small part of their nutrient intake and in others it might be an indispensable source of nutrients. As a rule, however, such animal food, however valuable it might be as a source of certain critically important minerals, is not the plants' major source of energy , which they generally derive mainly from photosynthesis. Insectivorous plants might consume insects and other animal material trapped adventitiously. However, most species to which such food represents an important part of their intake are specifically, often spectacularly, adapted to attract and secure adequate supplies. Their prey animals typically, but not exclusively, comprise insects and other arthropods . Plants highly adapted to reliance on animal food use
102-541: A variety of mechanisms to secure their prey, such as pitfalls, sticky surfaces, hair-trigger snaps, bladder-traps, entangling furriness, and lobster-pot trap mechanisms. Also known as carnivorous plants , they appear adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen , such as acidic bogs and rock outcroppings. Insectivorous plants include the Venus flytrap , several types of pitcher plants , butterworts , sundews , bladderworts ,
119-465: Is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects . An alternative term is entomophage , which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects . The first vertebrate insectivores were amphibians . When they evolved 400 million years ago, the first amphibians were piscivores , with numerous sharp conical teeth, much like a modern crocodile . The same tooth arrangement is however also suited for eating animals with exoskeletons , thus
136-555: Is an order of mammals comprising the Erinaceidae ( hedgehogs and gymnures ); Solenodonstidae (solenodons); Talpidae ( moles , shrew-like moles and desmans ); and Soricidae (true shrews) families. Historically, these animals were grouped with others such as treeshrews , elephant shrews , and colugos , under the broader category Insectivora , comprising all small insect-eating placental mammals. Wilhelm Peters identified two sub-groups of Insectivora, distinguished by
153-618: Is perhaps the largest insectivore. Insects also can be insectivores; examples are dragonflies , hornets , ladybugs , robber flies , and praying mantises . Insectivory also features to various degrees amongst primates , such as marmosets , tamarins , tarsiers , galagos and aye-aye . There is some suggestion that the earliest primates were nocturnal , arboreal insectivores. Insectivorous plants are plants that derive some of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoan . The benefit they derive from their catch varies considerably; in some species, it might include
170-604: The elephant shrews and aardvarks as part of it, although these two orders were traditionally seen as primitive ungulates . The sister group of the Afroinsectiphilia is the Paenungulata , which were also traditionally regarded as ungulates. If the clade of Afrotheria is genuine, then the Afroinsectiphilia are the closest relatives of the Pseudoungulata (here regarded as part of Afroinsectiphilia) and
187-600: The waterwheel plant , brocchinia and many members of the Bromeliaceae . The list is far from complete, and some plants, such as Roridula species, exploit the prey organisms mainly in a mutualistic relationship with other creatures, such as resident organisms that contribute to the digestion of prey. In particular, animal prey organisms supply carnivorous plants with nitrogen, but they also are important sources of various other soluble minerals, such as potassium and trace elements that are in short supply in environments where
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#1732772914445204-818: The Lipotyphla are not a monophyletic group. This led to tenrecs , otter shrews , and golden moles being placed a new order ( Afrosoricida , in the superorder Afrotheria ), with the remaining members of Lipotyphla being reclassified as Eulipotyphla. A 2023 study suggested that the order began to diversify prior to the K-Pg extinction , based on molecular clock estimates. Family-level cladogram of modern eulipotyphlan relationships, following Roca et al. and Brace et al.: † Nesophontidae [REDACTED] Solenodontidae [REDACTED] Talpidae [REDACTED] Soricidae [REDACTED] Erinaceidae [REDACTED] The upper and lower basal subclades within
221-550: The Paenungulata. In a classification governed by morphological data, both the Pseudoungulata and Paenungulata are seen as true ungulates, thus not related to Afroinsectiphilia. However, DNA research is thought to provide a more fundamental classification. Additionally, there might be some dental synapomorphies uniting afroinsectiphilians: p4 talonid and trigonid of similar breadth, a prominent p4 hypoconid, presence of
238-459: The ability to eat insects is an extension of piscivory. At one time, insectivorous mammals were scientifically classified in an order called Insectivora . This order is now abandoned, as not all insectivorous mammals are closely related. Most of the Insectivora taxa have been reclassified; those that have not yet been reclassified and found to be truly related to each other remain in
255-543: The order Eulipotyphla . Although individually small, insects exist in enormous numbers. Insects make up a very large part of the animal biomass in almost all non-marine, non-polar environments. It has been estimated that the global insect biomass is in the region of 10 kg (one billion tons) with an estimated population of 10 (one billion billion, or quintillion ) organisms. Many creatures depend on insects as their primary diet, and many that do not (and are thus not technically insectivores) nevertheless use insects as
272-499: The plants flourish. This gives them a decisive advantage over other plants, whereas in nutrient-rich soils they tend to be out-competed by plants adapted to aggressive growth where nutrient supplies are not the major constraints. Technically these plants are not strictly insectivorous, as they consume any animal that they can secure and consume; the distinction is trivial, however, because not many primarily insectivorous organisms exclusively consume insects. Most of those that do have such
289-512: The presence or absence of a cecum in the large intestine. In his 1866 Generelle morphologie der organismen , Ernest Haeckel named these groups Menotyphla and Lipotyphla, respectively from μένω ("remain")/ λείπω ("lack" or "leave behind") + τυφλὸν literally "blind", as in τυφλὸν ἔντερον ("blind intestine", from which the Latin intestinum caecum derives as a calque ). Since the late 1990s, molecular studies have produced evidence that
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