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Earthworms are soil-dwelling detritivores. Detritivores (also known as detrivores, detritophages, detritus feeders or detritus eaters) are heterotrophs that obtain nutrients by consuming detritus (decomposing plant and animal parts as well as feces). [1] There are many kinds of invertebrates, vertebrates, and plants that carry out coprophagy.
In recent years, the word detritus has also come to be used with aquariums (the word "aquarium" is a general term for any installation for keeping aquatic animals). When animals such as fish are kept in an aquarium, they produce substances such as excreta, mucus, and dead skin cast off during moulting. These substances naturally generate ...
In most grassland ecosystems, natural damage from fire, detritivores that feed on decaying matter, termites, grazing mammals, and the physical movement of animals through the grass are the primary agents of breakdown and nutrient cycling, while bacteria and fungi play the main roles in further decomposition.
Animals and other heterotrophs must eat in order to survive — carnivores eat other animals, herbivores eat plants, omnivores consume a mixture of both plant and animal matter, and detritivores eat detritus. Fungi digest organic matter outside their bodies as opposed to animals that digest their food inside their bodies.
In a detrital web, plant and animal matter is broken down by decomposers, e.g., bacteria and fungi, and moves to detritivores and then carnivores. [69] There are often relationships between the detrital web and the grazing web. Mushrooms produced by decomposers in the detrital web become a food source for deer, squirrels, and mice in the ...
To do so, they gathered up the debris underneath their bodies using their arms. They then used their siphon, a tube-like part of their body, to expel water aimed at the debris.
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Researchers have discovered that California ground squirrels engage in "carnivorous behaviors" when there is a temporary increase in prey.