In zoology, a florivore (not to be confused with a folivore) is an animal that primarily eats products of flowers. Florivores are types of herbivores (often referred to as floral herbivores), yet within the feeding behavior of florivory, there is a range of other more specific feeding behaviors, including, but not limited to:
Diet
A florivore's diet consists of bulky foodstuffs, including the items mentioned above, yet also bark, roots, and similar items. Many florivores are also omnivores, meaning that their diets can also be supplemented by various small insects, for instance.
Examples
The majority of birds in the
Psittacine family are florivores,
which includes most
parrots,
parakeets,
macaws, and
cockatoos. Other notable florivores are
hummingbirds, sparrows, and
toucans.
[[1] ] The crab-eating macaque acts as an invasive florivore in Mauritius, where it forages voraciously on flowers of native plants, including the endangered, endemic
Roussea simplex.
See also
External links
Bibliography
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Approaches to Plant Evolutionary Ecology by G.P. Cheplick
-
Poultry Nutrition: A Comparative Approach by K. C. Klasing (Department of animal science, University of California, Davis, California 95616, 2005)
