insectivore

/ɪnˌsɛktəˈvɔər/

Other forms: insectivores

An insectivore is an animal that eats only or mainly insects. If chocolate-covered crickets are your thing, then go ahead and call yourself an insectivore (and good luck finding a date).

A carnivore is an animal that eats other animals, and an insectivore is a more specific type of carnivore: one whose diet is mainly insects. Insectivores include many lizards, frogs, and spiders. A spider catching a bug in a web and a frog catching a fly with its tongue are two examples of insectivore behavior. Since there are millions of insects in the world, being an insectivore is a pretty good deal.

Definitions of insectivore

1. noun

   any organism that feeds mainly on insects
   type of:

   animal, animate being, beast, brute, creature, fauna

   a living organism characterized by voluntary movement
2. noun

   small insect-eating mainly nocturnal terrestrial or fossorial mammals
   types:

   mole

   small velvety-furred burrowing mammal having small eyes and fossorial forefeet

   shrew, shrewmouse

   small mouselike mammal with a long snout; related to moles

   Erinaceus europaeus, Erinaceus europeaeus, hedgehog

   small nocturnal Old World mammal covered with both hair and protective spines

   tendrac, tenrec

   small often spiny insectivorous mammal of Madagascar; resembles a hedgehog

   Potamogale velox, otter shrew, potamogale

   amphibious African insectivorous mammal that resembles an otter

   Condylura cristata, star-nosed mole, starnose mole

   amphibious mole of eastern North America having pink fleshy tentacles around the nose

   Parascalops breweri, brewer's mole, hair-tailed mole

   mole of eastern North America

   golden mole

   mole of southern Africa having iridescent guard hairs mixed with the underfur

   shrew mole

   slender mole having a long snout and tail

   Sorex araneus, common shrew

   common American shrew

   Sorex cinereus, masked shrew

   commonest shrew of moist habitats in North America

   Blarina brevicauda, short-tailed shrew

   North American shrew with tail less than half its body length

   water shrew

   any of several small semiaquatic shrews usually living near swift-flowing streams

   Cryptotis parva, least shrew

   small brown shrew of grassy regions of eastern United States

   Tenrec ecaudatus, tailless tenrec

   prolific animal that feeds chiefly on earthworms

   type of:

   eutherian, eutherian mammal, placental, placental mammal

   mammals having a placenta; all mammals except monotremes and marsupials