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Plant tissues are made up of resilient molecules (e.g. cellulose, lignin, xylan) that decay at a much lower rate than other organic molecules. The activity of detritivores is the reason why there is not an accumulation of plant litter in nature.
Detritivores are an important aspect of many ecosystem. They can live on any type of soil with an organic component, including marine ecosystems, where they are termed interchangeably with bottom feeder.
Typical detritivorous animals include millipedes, Collembola, woodlice, Scathophagidae, slugs, many Worm, sea stars, sea cucumbers, fiddler crabs, and some sedentary marine such as worms of the family Terebellidae.
Detritivores can be classified into more specific groups based on their size and biomes. Macrodetritivores are larger organisms such as millipedes, springtails, and woodlouse, while microdetritivores are smaller organisms such as bacteria.
Scavengers are not typically thought to be detritivores, as they generally eat large quantities of organic matter, but both detritivores and scavengers are the same type of cases of consumer-resource systems. The consumption of wood, whether alive or dead, is known as xylophagy. The activity of animals feeding only on dead wood is called -xylophagy and those animals, sapro-xylophagous.
Many detritivores live in mature woodland, though the term can be applied to certain in Benthos. These organisms play a crucial role in benthic ecosystems, forming essential and participating in the nitrogen cycle. Detritivores and decomposers that reside in the desert live in burrows underground to avoid the hot surface since underground conditions provide favorable living conditions for them. Detritivores are the main organisms in clearing plant litter and recycling nutrients in the desert. Due to the limited vegetation available in the desert, desert detritivores adapted and evolved ways to feed in the extreme conditions of the desert. Detritivore feeding behaviour is affected by rainfall; moist soil increases detritivore feeding and excretion.
Fungi, acting as decomposers, are important in today's terrestrial environment. During the Carboniferous period, fungi and bacteria had yet to evolve the capacity to digest lignin, and so large deposits of dead plant tissue accumulated during this period, later becoming the .
By feeding on sediments directly to extract the organic component, some detritivores incidentally concentrate toxic .
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