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An insectivore is a type of carnivore with a diet that consists chiefly of insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s and similar small creatures.

Although individually small, insects exist in enormous numbers and make up a very large part of the animal biomass in almost all non-marine environments. In Queensland
Queensland

Queensland is a States and territories of Australia of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south....
 pastures, for example, it is normal to have a greater total weight of Scarabaeidae larvae under the surface than of the beef cattle grazing above it.

A great many creatures depend on insects as their primary diet, and many that do not (and are thus not technically insectivores) nevertheless use insects as a protein
Protein

Proteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid Residue ....
 supplement, particularly when they are breeding.

Some examples of insectivores include nightingale
Nightingale

The Nightingale , also known as Rufous and Common Nightingale, is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the Thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae....
, aardwolf
Aardwolf

The aardwolf is a small, Entomophagy hyena-like mammal, native to East Africa and Southern Africa. The name means "earth wolf" in Afrikaans/Dutch language....
, echidna
Echidna

Echidnas , also known as spiny anteaters, are four Extant taxon mammal species belonging to the Tachyglossidae Family of the monotremes....
, swallows, anteater
Anteater

Anteaters are the four mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua commonly known for eating ants and termites. Together with the sloths, they compose the order Pilosa....
s, carp
Carp

Carp is a common name for various freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish originally from Eurasia and southeast Asia....
, frog
Frog

Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . The name frog derives from Old English language frogga, , cognate with Sanskrit plava , probably deriving from Proto-Indo-European language praw = "to jump"....
s, lizard
Lizard

Lizards are a large and widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 5,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains....
s, bat
Bat

Bats are mammals in the order Chiroptera. The forelimbs of all bats are developed as wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of sustained flight ....
s, and spider
Spider

Spiders are air-breathing chelicerate arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae modified into fangs that inject venom. In their bodies the usual arthropod segments are fused into two Tagma , the cephalothorax and abdomen, joined by a small, cylindrical pedicel....
s.






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An insectivore is a type of carnivore with a diet that consists chiefly of insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s and similar small creatures.

Although individually small, insects exist in enormous numbers and make up a very large part of the animal biomass in almost all non-marine environments. In Queensland
Queensland

Queensland is a States and territories of Australia of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south....
 pastures, for example, it is normal to have a greater total weight of Scarabaeidae larvae under the surface than of the beef cattle grazing above it.

A great many creatures depend on insects as their primary diet, and many that do not (and are thus not technically insectivores) nevertheless use insects as a protein
Protein

Proteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid Residue ....
 supplement, particularly when they are breeding.

Some examples of insectivores include nightingale
Nightingale

The Nightingale , also known as Rufous and Common Nightingale, is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the Thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae....
, aardwolf
Aardwolf

The aardwolf is a small, Entomophagy hyena-like mammal, native to East Africa and Southern Africa. The name means "earth wolf" in Afrikaans/Dutch language....
, echidna
Echidna

Echidnas , also known as spiny anteaters, are four Extant taxon mammal species belonging to the Tachyglossidae Family of the monotremes....
, swallows, anteater
Anteater

Anteaters are the four mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua commonly known for eating ants and termites. Together with the sloths, they compose the order Pilosa....
s, carp
Carp

Carp is a common name for various freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish originally from Eurasia and southeast Asia....
, frog
Frog

Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . The name frog derives from Old English language frogga, , cognate with Sanskrit plava , probably deriving from Proto-Indo-European language praw = "to jump"....
s, lizard
Lizard

Lizards are a large and widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 5,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains....
s, bat
Bat

Bats are mammals in the order Chiroptera. The forelimbs of all bats are developed as wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of sustained flight ....
s, and spider
Spider

Spiders are air-breathing chelicerate arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae modified into fangs that inject venom. In their bodies the usual arthropod segments are fused into two Tagma , the cephalothorax and abdomen, joined by a small, cylindrical pedicel....
s. Insects also can be insectivores. Examples would be dragonflies
Dragonfly

A dragonfly is a type of insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera....
, hornet
Hornet

Hornets are the largest eusociality wasps, that reach up to 45 millimetres in length. The true hornets make up the genus Vespa, and are distinguished from other vespines by the width of the vertex , which is proportionally larger in Vespa; and by the anteriorly rounded gasters ....
s, ladybugs, and praying mantises.

Insectivorous plants
Carnivorous plant

Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods....
 also exist, including the Venus flytrap
Venus Flytrap

The Venus Flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant that catches and digests animal prey—mostly insects and arachnids. Its trapping structure is formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves and is triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces....
, several types of pitcher plant
Pitcher plant

Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants whose prey-trapping mechanism features a deep cavity filled with liquid known as a pitfall trap. It has been widely assumed that the various sorts of pitfall trap evolved from rolled leaves, with natural selection pressure favouring more deeply cupped leaves over evolutionary time....
s, butterworts, sundew
Sundew

Drosera, commonly known as the sundews, comprise one of the largest genus of carnivorous plants, with over 170 species. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilage glands covering their leaf surface....
s, bladderwort
Bladderwort

Bladderwort is the common name given to the plants of the genus Utricularia. The largest genus of carnivorous plants, it consists of some 215 species which occur in fresh water and wet soil across every continent except Antarctica....
s, the waterwheel plant
Waterwheel plant

Aldrovanda vesiculosa, known as the waterwheel plant, is the sole extant taxon species in the flowering plant genus Aldrovanda of the family Droseraceae....
, brocchinia
Brocchinia

Brocchinia is a genus within the subfamily Pitcairnioideae that is native to southern Venezuela and Guyana, and is found in areas containing sandstone....
 bromeliads, and others. These generally grow in nitrogen
Nitrogen

Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N and atomic number 7 and atomic mass 14.00674?. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78% by volume of Earth's atmosphere....
-poor soils, which they instead obtain by trapping insects. Technically these plants are not strictly insectivorous, as they consume any animal small enough to be trapped by them; indeed, the larger varieties of pitcher plant have been known to consume small rodents and lizards.

See also

  • Entomophagy
    Entomophagy

    Entomophagy is the practice of eating insects as food. Entomophagy is seen in a large number of taxonomic groups including insects , birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals....
  • Insectivora
    Insectivora

    The Order Insectivora is a now-abandoned biological grouping within the class of mammals.In the past, the grouping was used as a scrapbasket for a variety of small to very small, relatively unspecialised, insectivorous mammals....
  • -vore