insectivore
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- Related Topics:
- mammal
- golden mole
- placental mammal
- Erinaceomorpha
- Soricimorpha
insectivore, the common name applied to any of 450 or so species of mammals—comprising hedgehogs, golden moles, “true” moles, “true” shrews, the moonrat, gymnures, solenodons, and tenrecs—that subsist primarily on insects, other arthropods, and earthworms.
Insectivora is obsolete as a taxonomic order, but the term insectivore is still used to refer to the remaining members, which have been classified into three orders: Soricimorpha, Erinaceomorpha, and Chrysochloridea. Together these three orders are called grandorder Lipotyphla by mammalogists, its members being referred to as either lipotyphlans or insectivores.
Natural history
Insectivores make up almost 10 percent of all mammal species, and most are the size of mice or small rats. The white-toothed pygmy shrew (Suncus etruscus), however, weighs less than 2.5 grams (0.09 ounce) and is perhaps the smallest living mammal. Other insectivores, such as the moonrat (Echinosorex gymnura) and the tailless tenrec (Tenrec ecaudatus), attain the size of a small rabbit. Most insectivores are either ground dwellers or burrowers, but several are amphibious, and a few have adapted to life in the trees or forest understory. They prey almost entirely on invertebrates and small vertebrates. The olfactory lobes of the brain are highly developed, which indicates an acute sense of smell. The cerebral hemispheres, however, are small compared with those of most other placental mammals, which reflects less-developed intelligence and manipulative skills. Most have a long, flexible snout (proboscis) adorned with sensory whiskers (vibrissae) that is used to probe leaf litter, soil, mud, or water and locate prey by touch and smell. Prey may be pinned by the front feet, but it is typically grasped by the teeth and manipulated solely by mouth and proboscis until swallowed. Vision is poor; eyes are small, degenerate, or covered with skin in solenodons, shrews, moles, and golden moles. Although the eyes are larger in hedgehogs, the moonrat, gymnures, and tenrecs, they are still smaller than in other orders of living mammals. Hearing is acute. Insectivores vocalize by hisses and snarls or with a range of other sounds, including ultrasonics; some use specialized spines to produce sounds, and a few can echolocate.
Classification
Classification of insectivores has been problematic since the founding of modern taxonomy by Carolus Linnaeus. In 1758 he placed hedgehogs, shrews, and moles with opossums, armadillos, and pigs in the order Bestiae, as all have a long snout. In 1795 hedgehogs, shrews, and moles were separated from the others and joined with bears and other carnivores in the order Plantigrades, because all walk on the soles of their feet (plantigrade). Hedgehogs, shrews, and moles were placed in the family Subterranea, order Faculata, in 1811, but all had been recognized as “insectivores” by 1816, and that common name was latinized as Insectivora in 1821. By 1855 the first few genera of tree shrews and elephant shrews had been described and included within Insectivora, and in 1866 the order was divided into suborder Menotyphla, containing tree shrews and elephant shrews, and suborder Lipotyphla for hedgehogs, shrews, moles, and their relatives. Revised classifications followed, but owing to the wide range of anatomical features present in the group, specialists could agree only that insectivores were placental mammals that could not be placed in any of the better-defined orders. Insectivora thus became basically a taxonomic “catch-all” group containing those mammals impossible to place elsewhere.
The definition of Insectivora was significantly modified in 1956 by the insectivore specialist P.M. Butler, who raised Lipotyphla to the rank of order (now containing only hedgehogs, shrews, moles, solenodons, tenrecs, and golden moles), assigned elephant shrews and tree shrews to separate orders, and abandoned the name Insectivora. Most professional mammalogists now use Lipotyphla instead of Insectivora and informally refer to the group as either lipotyphlans or insectivores. Others, however, prefer Insectivora, and that name is still used in lay publications as well as some professional compilations.
Defining the Lipotyphla has remained intractable, however, and the closest living relative of Lipotyphla has not been determined. Living lipotyphlans apparently share only two traits for certain. All lipotyphlans lack a cecum and have a short gut tube (large and small intestine) relative to body length without any expansion or shape change toward the end. In addition, the cartilaginous connection between the pubic bones of the pelvis is reduced. Most lipotyphlans also have a large extension of the maxillary bone that forms part of the eye socket. The most authoritative classification of mammals, presented by M.C. McKenna and Susan K. Bell in 1997, placed Lipotyphla at a taxonomic rank higher than order (grandorder) and recognized three orders within the grandorder: Chrysochloridea (golden moles), Erinaceomorpha (hedgehogs, gymnures, the moonrat, and moles), and Soricimorpha (solenodons, shrews, and tenrecs). The following arrangement basically follows the classification by McKenna and Bell (1997), with a few alterations.
- Grandorder Lipotyphla (insectivores)
- 450 or so species in 64 genera and 3 orders. Fossils of 171 extinct genera and 13 extinct families have been identified. The earliest lipotyphlan fossils are from the order Soricimorpha and date to the Late Cretaceous Period in North America and Asia.
- Order Chrysochloridea
- Family Chrysochloridae (golden moles)
- 18 species in 7 genera from Africa. Tenrecs (family Tenricidae) may actually be a member of this group.
- Order Erinaceomorpha
- 23 species in 1 family. 4 fossil families contain 15 genera and 9 additional genera unallocated to families dating to the Early Paleocene Epoch. The group’s evolutionary relationship with other lipotyphlans and even with other mammalian orders is unresolved. Moles (family Talpidae) are sometimes classified in this group.
- Family Erinaceidae (hedgehogs, gymnures, and the moonrat)
- 23 species in 7 genera. 22 fossil genera dating to the Paleocene in North America, the Eocene in Europe and Asia, and the Miocene in Africa.
- Subfamily Erinaceinae (hedgehogs)
- 15 species in 4 genera from Europe, Asia, and Africa.
- Subfamily Galericinae (moonrat and gymnures)
- 8 species in 3 genera from Southeast Asia.
- Order Soricimorpha
- More than 400 species in 4 families. 9 fossil families contain 30 genera, some dating to the Late Cretaceous. Moles (family Talpidae) are sometimes classified with hedgehogs in Erinaceomorpha.
- Family Soricidae (true shrews)
- 341 or more species in 23 genera and 60 extinct genera dating to the Middle Eocene in North America, the Late Eocene in Europe, the Early Oligocene in Asia, the Middle Miocene in Africa, and the Pleistocene in northwestern South America.
- Subfamily Crocidurinae
- 208 species in 9 genera.
- Subfamily Soricinae
- 116 or more species in 11 genera.
- Subfamily Myosoricinae
- 17 species in 3 genera.
- Family Talpidae (true moles)
- 42 species in 17 genera. 30 fossil genera have been identified from the Middle Eocene of Europe, the Oligocene in Asia and the Mediterranean region, and the Late Oligocene in North America.
- Subfamily Talpinae
- 36 species in 14 genera.
- Subfamily Uropsilinae (Asiatic shrew moles)
- 4 species in 1 genus.
- Subfamily Desmaninae (desmans)
- 2 species in 2 genera.
- Family Tenrecidae (tenrecs)
- 29 species in 10 genera. 3 fossil genera dating to the Early Miocene in Africa, to the Pleistocene on Madagascar.
- Subfamily Oryzorictinae
- 21 species in 3 genera.
- Subfamily Tenrecidae
- 4 species in 4 genera.
- Subfamily Potamogalinae (otter shrews)
- 3 species in 2 genera.
- Subfamily Geogalinae (large-eared tenrec)
- 1 species.
- Family Solenodontidae (solenodons)
- 2 species in 1 genus.