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Herbivory is of extreme ecological importance and prevalence among insects.Perhaps one third (or 500,000) of all described species are herbivores. [4] Herbivorous insects are by far the most important animal pollinators, and constitute significant prey items for predatory animals, as well as acting as major parasites and predators of plants; parasitic species often induce the formation of galls.
For example, increased abundance of herbivores such as deer decrease plant diversity and species richness, [37] while other large mammalian herbivores like bison control dominant species which allows other species to flourish. [38] Plant-herbivore interactions can also operate so that plant communities mediate herbivore communities. [39]
Extant megaherbivores are large megafaunaul herbivores that can exceed 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) in weight. They include elephants, rhinos, hippos, and giraffes, and are the largest of the land animals. There are nine extant species of megaherbivores, distributed across Africa and Asia.
Primary consumers are herbivores, feeding on plants or algae. Caterpillars, insects, grasshoppers, termites and hummingbirds are all examples of primary consumers because they only eat autotrophs (plants). There are certain primary consumers that are called specialists because they only eat one type of producers.
Clawed herbivores (3 C, 20 P) F. Folivores (4 C, 13 P) H. Herbivorous vertebrates (2 C, 5 P) Pages in category "Herbivorous animals"
This is one example of how overbrowsing can lead to the loss of reproductive individuals in a population, and a lack of recruitment of young plants. Plants also differ in their palatability to herbivores. At high densities of herbivores, plants that are highly selected as browse may be missing small and large individuals from the population. [18]
For example, there are roughly 3,300 species of living lizards and approximately 3% of them eat at least some plants. [4] Though the exact definition of herbivory varies significantly between scientists, most define herbivorous lepidosaurs as those that consume plants for approximately 70-90% of its diet.
Herbivores are often specialists, but those that eat a variety of plants may be considered generalists. A well-known example of a specialist animal is the monophagous koala, which subsists almost entirely on eucalyptus leaves.