DETRITIVORES
When most people
think of ecological food chains they picture the plants
(producers) being eaten by herbivores (primary consumers) which,
in turn, are eaten by predators (secondary consumers). In fact
there are other food chains: that of detritivory is very
important.
Detritivores are scavengers which feed on dead plants and animals
or their waste. They are essential for recycling of nutrients:
without them dead plant material would not be returned to the
soil for new growth. The earth might be covered by deep layers
old vegetation and lots of animal carcasses only slowly breaking
down by physical and chemical processes. Detritivorous animals
and fungi speed up this process. They also provide food for many
predators.
Detritivores work in different ways to different ends: their
combined effects lead to fairly rapid breakdown of old vegetation
although some substances, most obviously wood, are slower to
degrade than others.
Detritivorous
animals include:
Diplura, millipedes
Isopoda, woodlice
Collembola, springtails
Mollusca, slugs and snails
Larger specialists are:
Scarabaeidae, dung beetles
Scathophagidae, dung flies
Silphidae, burying beetles