- An organism that feeds on and breaks down dead plant or animal matter, returning essential nutrients to the ecosystem. Detritivores include microorganisms such as bacteria and protists as well as larger organisms such as fungi, insects, worms, and isotope crustaceans. In a food chain, detritivores are primary consumers.
- 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.
- Examples of Detritivores:-
1.burying beetles
2. dung beetles
3. dung flies
4. millipedes
5. woodlice
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