UCSB Science Line
Sponge Spicules Nerve Cells Galaxy Abalone Shell Nickel Succinate X-ray Lens Lupine
UCSB Science Line
Home
How it Works
Ask a Question
Search Topics
Webcasts
Our Scientists
Science Links
Contact Information
Is there a specific name for organisms that eat fungi? Herbivores eat plants and fungi is not a producer. This was a student question that stumped me- and my background is wildlife science/environmental science. I thought it was a great question. The tropic level depends on what is being decomposed, but it seems we have a name for other feeding habits, but not this one. Thank you.
Question Date: 2017-11-08
Answer 1:

Somewhat intuitively, a creature that consumes fungi is a fungivore ( from Wikipedia ).

Most creatures that eat fungi are, like us, omnivores in that they don't exclusively consume fungi. The wiki article for this term probably gives you a better idea of the variety of species that do this. I didn't realize this, but there are also some (mostly amoeba) that are bacterivores bacterivore . So I would guess that this naming convention of "kingdom+vore" holds pretty broadly.



Click Here to return to the search form.

University of California, Santa Barbara Materials Research Laboratory National Science Foundation
This program is co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and UCSB School-University Partnerships
Copyright © 2020 The Regents of the University of California,
All Rights Reserved.
UCSB Terms of Use