The Feeding Role of Invertebrate Consumers

Shredders - Use CPOM as wood
or leaves
b. Crustaceans
(amphipods,
isopods, crayfish)
& insect larvae
(craneflies, some
caddisflies, some
stoneflies)

Shredders
c.. Most CPOM consumers preffer
condiitiioned lleaves (colloniized by
bacteriia & ffungii)
i. Microbes add tissue & excretory products
ii. Make CPOM more digestible


2. Collector-filterers
Suspension feeders
b. FPOM in the water
column
c. Most have
morphological
adaptations for filtering
d. Blackflies (family
Simulidae) paired
cephalic fans

2. Collector-filterers
Caddisflies in the family
Hydropsychidae
i. Spin nets & capture
particles passively
ii. Different species have
different mesh sizes
iii. Longitudinal distribution
of species from those
that spin large mesh in
headwaters to those
that spin fine mesh in
large rivers

Collector-gatherers
Deposit feeders on FPOM
b. Mechanisms less diverse or less well
known
c. Generalists
d. Many organisms

4. Grazer-scrapers
1. Eat periphyton
2. Have specialized
mouth parts (e.g.,
snail radula, some
caddisfly
mouthparts)
3. Recent evidence
suggests they may
use more diverse
feeding


5. Predators
a. Eat other animals
b. Predators either
engulf prey whole
(e.g., odonates,
stoneflies) or pierce
prey and suck out
contents
(hemipterans)
c. Many are occasional
predators