>>Carnivory in *robins*? Isn't that a sign of the coming of the Anti-Christ?
>
>
>I guess you don't consider eating earthworms and other lawn invertebrates
>(beetles, caterpillars,weevils) to be examples of carnivory?!
>
>Don Cecile

To put this in the perspective of Biology 101, "carnivory" can be defined
either as "eating animals" or as "eating terrestrial vertebrates." In
discussions of vertebrate foods, it is often used especially for the
latter, as Michael did--in this parlance, most hawks are carnivores, robins
are insectivores, mergansers are piscivores, vultures are carrionivores,
scoters molluscivores. Oddly, there doesn't seem to be a term like
"invertivore" or "invertebrativore" (or "vermivore," which describes a
robin).

But in general ecological terms, carnivores are those animals that eat
animal matter (thus robins are very much carnivores), herbivores those that
eat plant matter. "Omnivore" is used for animals that eat a good deal of
both. Plant-eaters are divided into folivores (leaf-eating), frugivores
(fruit-eating), granivores (seed-eating), and nectarivores (you figure it
out).

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416