Pedophagy

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The Pädophagie (παῖς of ancient Greek, pais: descendant, child and φαγεῖν, phagein: eat) is a nutrition type, (then in the eggs oophagy called) or juveniles of paedophagen (brut eating or brut consuming) animals get eaten. It occurs in young animals of their own kind (then also called Kronismus ) or foreign species. The consumption of young animals of its own kind is a special form of cannibalism . Killing young animals of its own kind, called infanticide , can be associated with pedophagy, but in most cases it is not. Although the term can be used for a large number of animal species, including mammals, it is only widespread as a special type of diet for cichlids in the East African Great Lakes.

Pedophagy in cichlids

Haplochromis (Lipochromis) obesus from Lake Victoria, a pedophage

Pedophagy is a special type of diet for the cichlid species in the East African lakes Victoria , Tanganyika and Malawi . In these lakes the cichlids have undergone spectacular adaptive radiation , with hundreds of endemic species, a number of which are not necessarily closely related , i.e. convergent to each other, have developed special morphological and behavioral adaptations to pedagogical nutrition. The cichlids are almost all mouthbrooders , i.e. the eggs and young animals are actually well protected against predators , so that only specialized species can use this food resource. A total of at least 24 species with special adaptations to pedophagy are known, including species of the genera Caprichromis , Hemitaeniochromis and Naevochromis from Lake Malawi and Lipochromis from Lake Victoria.Typical for pedophagic cichlids is the extensive reduction of teeth, some of which have been completely lost, others have taken a different form. This is because they suck in and swallow their prey rather than bite. Some species, such as three species of the genus Caprichromis , get to the young by attacking mouth-brooding females with rams in the head area until they release some young. In some species, the rams take place from below, in others from the side. Others open their mouths extremely wide and thus completely enclose the head of the attacked female. In other species, such as the genera Otopharynx , Protomelas and Trematocranus in Lake Malawi, the predator uses the moment when the eggs have spawned in the brood nest, but have not yet been taken into the mouth, by lurking near clusters of nests. An individual of Champsochromis spiloryncus was seen harassing a mother of Mylochromis sphaerodon until it signaled its young to come into its mouth, and then swallowed up a large part of the swarm at once by pushing it quickly.

mythology

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry pedophagy in the spectrum lexicon of biology , accessed on May 31, 2016
  2. ↑ a b Tijs Goldschmidt: Darwin's Dreampond: Drama in Lake Victoria. MIT Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0-262-57121-0 , at page 33.
  3. ^ A. Konings (2007): Paedophagy in Malawi cichlids. Cichlid News 16: 28-32.
  4. ↑ F.Witte, JH Wanink, M. Kishe-Machumu (2007): Species Distinction and the Biodiversity Crisis in Lake Victoria. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 136: 1146-1159.
  5. ↑ Kenneth R. McKaye, Thomas Kocher (1983): Head ramming behavior by three paedophagous cichlids in Lake Malawi, Africa. Animal Behavior 31 (1): 207-210. doi: 10.1016 / S0003-3472 (83) 80190-0
  6. ^ A b George W. Barlow: The Cichlid Fishes: Nature's Grand Experiment in Evolution. Perseus Publishing, Cambridge Mass. 2000, new edition: Basic Books, 2002. ISBN 978-0-7382-0528-1 .