Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Feeding on a limited number of foods, usually within one taxonomic family.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective that
feed on a restricted range of food
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From oligo- + -phagous
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Examples
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Most phytophagous insects are diet specialists, i.e., they feed on one or a few plant species that are closely related (monophagous, host plants within one plant genus, or oligophagous, host plants within one family) [2].
PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Hubert Turner et al. 2010
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Y. cagnagellus may have arisen in this ancestor, allowing it to radiate on Rosaceae The only oligophagous species,
PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Hubert Turner et al. 2010
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Yponomeuta padellus and four of Y. cagnagellus from different localities and (in the case of the oligophagous
PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Hubert Turner et al. 2010
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