Coprophagia
eating of feces
Coprophagia ( KOP-rə-FAY-jee-ə) or coprophagy ( kə-PROF-ə-jee) is the consumption of feces. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek κόπρος kópros "feces" and φαγεῖν phageîn "to eat". Coprophagy refers to many kinds of feces-eating, including eating feces of other species (heterospecifics), of other individuals (allocoprophagy), or one's own (autocoprophagy). Feces may be already deposited or taken directly from the anus. Some animal species eat feces as a normal behavior, but in most species, coprophagia indicates a pathological condition.
Coprophagia by plants
Some carnivorous plants, such as pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes, obtain nutrition from the feces of commensal animals. Nepenthes lowii has evolved interdependence with tree shrews which feed on the plants secretions from the pitcher lid then defecate in the plant's pitchers. In the case of N. Lowii, the pitchers have evolved a toilet like shape to accommodate tree shrews who feed on the sweet, waxy, white substance on the pitcher lid then defecate into the pitchers.
Two species of proto-carnivorous plants in the genus Roridula trap and kill insect prey, then rely on a symbiosis with the insect species Pameridea roridulae, a jumping tree bug in the family Miridae. It has a symbiotic relationship with Roridula, where it feeds on trapped insects and its feces are absorbed through the leaves of the Roridula, giving the plant much-needed nutrients and nitrogen.
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This entry incorporates text from “Coprophagia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.