An animal that consumes
detritus, that is, dead animal or plant matter. In a
food web, detritivores help break down decaying or dead matter into fragments for
decomposers (Although the work of
bacteria and
fungi prepare the detritus for the detritivores as well). The term refers mainly to invertebrates such as
earthworms, slugs, snails,
millipedes,
termites, beetle grubs, and fly maggots, mites, cockroaches, crickets,
earwigs (as opposed to vertebrate
scavengers, such as
vultures or
jackals).
The existence of detritivores feeding on carrion has also led to the creation of a field called forensic entomology. It is frequently possible to determine when and where a person died or was murdered by identifying the species of detritivores that have colonized the body. --Conrad Toepfer, "Detritivore Review."*
Detritivores may form a
parallel food chain within an
ecosystem (Some vertebrate
carnivores survive preying on the detritivores and ignore the herbivore population altogether).
*
<http://faculty.millikin.edu/~ctoepfer/Creepy%202002/Review/Detritivores.html> (16 July 2002)
Other sources:
Jenne, Bridgette. "Emigration Creek Project." Westminster College.
<http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/tharrison/emigration/planaria.htm> (16 July 2002)
Myles, T.G. "Lecture on the Fauna of Forest Soils." 30 October 1996. University of Toronto. <t;http://www.utoronto.ca/forest/termite/lecture1.htmhttp://www.utoronto.ca/forest/termite/lecture1.htm> (16 July 2002)