the.com/phytophagy
Eating plants for a living — the diet that invented teeth built for grinding, not killing.
means The biological habit of feeding on plants, as practiced by herbivorous animals and plant-eating insects.
from Built from Greek parts: 'phyton' meaning plant (the same root that gives us 'phyte' in words like 'neophyte' and 'zoophyte'), and 'phagein' meaning to eat or devour (also found in 'esophagus' and 'sarcophagus,' literally 'flesh-eater'). Scientists stitched the two together in the 19th century, when biology was busy coining precise Greek-rooted terms to sort the living world by diet and habit.
- literal meaning
- Greek for plant-eating, root of herbivore science
- insect champions
- over half of all insect species are phytophagous
- plant defense
- spurred evolution of thorns, toxins, and tough leaves
- not vegetarianism
- describes any organism, not just moral dinner choices