Insectivore

A Southern Aligator Lizard eating a praying manitis

An insectivore is an animal or insect that eats mostly insects for food. An anteater is an animal that eats ants. Insectivorous plants also eat insects. The Venus flytrap is one of them.

To eat insects for food is not very easy because insects are small. Large insect-eating animals must eat many of them. Anteaters eat hundreds of ants every day.

Some omnivores like humans and bears also eat insects for food. There was once a taxonomic group of mammals called Insectivora. Most of its animals are now called Eulipotyphla.

Insectivore Media

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  This aardwolf skull exhibits greatly reduced molars and carnassials teeth as they are unnecessary for any large, insectivorous animal subsisting on soft insects such as termites. The dentition of a shrew is very different. The aardwolf uses its canine teeth in self-defence; accordingly, they have not been greatly reduced.

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  A robber fly eating a hoverfly

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  The giant anteater, a large insectivorous mammal

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  Drosera species

Related pages

• Herbivore - an animal that eats mostly plants
• Carnivore - an animal that mostly eats meat from other animals.
• Detritivore - an animal that eats garbage, dead animals or other food left from another animal.
• Omnivore - an animal that eats animal meat, plants, fruit, and insects.