The anteater is a clear example of an insectivorous animal.
The adjective insectivorous , which comes from the Latin word insectum , is used to describe an animal whose diet is based primarily on the ingestion of insects . The term can also be used to refer to a plant capable of catching and digesting insects .
Before moving on, it is important to remember that an insect is an arthropod : an invertebrate whose body, covered by a cuticle, has several segments and has appendages. The body of an insect is divided into abdomen, thorax and head and has three pairs of legs, a pair of antennae and, usually, at least one pair of wings.
Species that eat insects
Species that feed on these animals are called insectivores. There are other species that eat insects, but these do not represent the most important food in their diet, and so are not classified as insectivores.
Anteaters , bats , swallows and spiders are insectivorous. There are even insectivorous insects, such as dragonflies and wasps .
Insectivorous plants
As we mentioned above, there are also insectivorous plants (another name by which they are known is carnivorous plants ). These specimens generally grow in soils with a low level of nitrogen , which is why they must supplement their diet with proteins from animals (which contain this element). In this context, insectivorous plants eat insects, although they obtain the highest amount of energy from other different sources.
The oldest treatise on insectivorous plants dates back to 1875 and was written by the English naturalist Charles Darwin , a scientist whose study of human evolution is still relevant today. According to the observations of experts, insectivorous plants are divided into eleven lineages represented in more than twelve genera and five families, with a total of around six hundred and thirty species. Their feeding behavior consists of attracting insects and then trapping them and absorbing their nutrients through the action of digestive bacteria or specialized enzymes.
As an example, we can mention that the plants known as sundew are insectivorous. Thanks to the tentacles that allow them to capture and digest insects, they feed in this way.
Insectivorous plants: way of capture
One classification of insectivorous plants refers to the strategy they use to attract and catch their prey , something that can be as fascinating as it is creepy. Let's start with the mechanism called pincers , which are used by Dionaea muscipula ( Venus flytrap ) and Aldrovanda vesiculosa . They produce a sweet nectar that attracts certain insects and small animals, which land on the leaf and, if they touch two of their detector cilia in less than five seconds, the leaf closes with a movement similar to that of a pincer.
Insectivorous plants attract insects and trap them to absorb their nutrients.
On the other hand, there are those that use sticky hairs , such as Pinguicula, Drosophyllum, Byblis and Drosera . The latter, for example, has leaves close to the ground that produce a viscous liquid with a honey-like aroma . Given its characteristics, it causes insects to stick to the hairs of the leaf as soon as it lands on it. Then, its tentacles close in a curved movement. It can take up to fourteen days until they open again.
We can also mention the so-called wineskin plants , which use pitfall traps . Their shape is similar to that of a jar, inside which they house a substance that they use to drown their prey. First, they attract them with certain aromas that emerge from the edge of said structure , which is slippery and causes them to fall inside until they reach the bottom, where they carry out the digestive process.