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Saprophage

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saprophage

[′sap·rə‚fāj]
(biology)
An organism that lives on decaying organic matter.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Saprophage

 

an animal that feeds on the carcasses of other animals. Saprophages include hyenas, vultures, ravens, carrion beetles, dermestids, the larvae of blowflies and flesh flies, and certain crustaceans (especially benthic beach fleas and river crayfish). Many predators and omnivorous animals are partial saprophages. Saprophages function as cleaning agents by disposing of putrefying remains.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive
Meningo-encephalomyelitis due to the saprophagous nematode, Micronema deletrix.
Saprophagous families were not as abundant or diverse as in many other habitats, and this may be due to the nature of my sites.
Yeasts growing on overripe fruit provide nutrients for adults and larvae of saprophagous Drosophila species (Mercot et al.
Diplura, Symphyla, and Thysanura (all saprophagous), Gastropoda (saprophagous/herbivorous), Trichoptera (larvae and adults, both of them saprophagous/predators), Pseudoscorpionida (predators), and Diptera (herbivorous) were not found only in PA (Table 2).
The life history of some species of the genus Dohrniphora have been described by Brown (2010), most of them with saprophagous habits, though there are also known species where the larvae are scavengers, fungivorous, predators, kleptoparasites, and parasitoids.
Adult beetles are mostly saprophagous feeding on different kinds of decaying organic matter whereas larvae are absolutely predaceous preying on various invertebrates (Fikacek et al.
hirsuta are saprophagous, rather than predatory, and pointed out a number of larval characteristics indicative of saprophagy/coprophagy.
The trophic level of each species (phytophagous, zoophagous and saprophagous) was confirmed from recent available literature.
Flesh flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) are typically saprophagous and frequently found associated to ephemeral resources, like carrion and faeces (Ives 1991, Mendes and Linhares 1993).
Adult scarabaeoid beetles are typically either phytophagous or saprophagous. The scarabaeiform, or grub-like, larvae of some taxa feed on plant roots, and both adult and immature stages of others feed on the dung of mammals.
Saprophagous organisms feed on the dead organs of plants, on animal corpses (necrophages), or on excrement (coprophages).
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