DETRITIVORE animals: characteristics and examples

Ecosystems are made up of many organisms, each of which has a place in the food chain. Within food chains, the most recognized are primary producers (plants) and consumers, but little attention is paid to detritivores or decomposers.

Decomposing organisms are those that feed on dead organic matter, and transform it into inorganic matter, which can be used again by producers, closing the chain circle trophic. In this lesson from a TEACHER we will attend to detritivore animals: characteristics and examples.

There is a classification of animals by their diet and, in it, we do not find the detritivores are those living beings that ingest dead matter and digest it inside their body. As we will see later, that its digestion is internal is a very important trait.

Within the detritivores are animals such as earthworms but are not considered detritivores dung animals (which consume fecal matter), xylophages (which feed on wood) and ghouls (which feed on corpses).

In many cases, these three terms are used interchangeably but in reality they do not mean the same thing.

• A decomposer is that organism that uses dead organic matter as an energy source. In this case, the living being decomposes dead or decomposing organisms to produce inorganic matter. Within the decomposers we can find two variants: detritivores and saprophytes.
• Detritivores ingest and digest dead matter internally. Their digestion is internal, and they are usually animals such as earthworms. Next we will see more examples of detritivore animals.
• On the other hand, saprophytes They are that get their energy from waste coming from other organisms, such as dead leaves, corpses or excrement, with an external digestion. The most classic examples of saprophytes are fungi (for example, those of the genus Mucor orPenicillium) and soil bacteria, Pseudomonas, etc.

Therefore: all detritivores are decomposers and all saprophytes are decomposers. Decomposers can be detritivores or saprophytes depending on where the digestion of organic matter takes place.

Taking into account the definition of detritivore, we can say that these animals have very particular elements. The characteristics of detritivore animals They are:

• They recycle organic matter, allowing the cycle of matter to close in food webs.
• They are located in different media. The best known detritivores are those that inhabit forest floors, for example, but these organisms are also in aquatic ecosystems, for example, forming the benthos.
• Little size. The energy that detritivores can obtain by consuming matter is quite small, so they are usually small animals, with a low energy demand.
• Normally associated with humid environments. Because their diet is quite poor in energy and nutrients, detritivores are usually found in humid environments where they do not have to invest much in developing complex structures to pump oxygen (breathe through the skin) or to protect your body from water loss (these are usually soft-bodied or heavily coated animals). thin).