phytophagous, a. Zool.
(faɪˈtɒfəgəs, fɪt-)
[f. Gr. ϕυτό-ν plant + -ϕάγ-ος eating + -ous (see -phagous): cf. mod.L. Phytophaga, -phagi.]
a. Feeding on plants or vegetable substances: chiefly said of insects, molluscs, and the like. b. Belonging to the Phytophaga, a name given to various groups and divisions of animals, e.g. (a) leaf-beetles and their allies, (b) sawflies and horntails, (c) certain cyprinoid fishes, (d) the plant-eating edentates, (e) the plant-eating placental mammals.
| 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xlix. IV. 479 Out of a list of..8000 British insects..3724 [might be called] phytiphagous. Note. We employ this term, because the more common one, ‘herbivorous’, does not properly include devourers of timber, fungi, etc. 1832 Lyell Princ. Geol. II 143 It may deprive a large number of phytophagous animals of their food. 1876 D. Wilson Preh. Man (ed. 3) I. xv. 374 This phytophagous cetacean [the Manatee]..is found only in tropical waters. 1895 Edin. Rev. Oct. 371 Some of the true slugs are carnivorous instead of phytophagous. |