🍞 Limited eating 🐛 Limited diet

oligophagy

9.9

Feeding on only a small number of different plants or foods

noun
/ˌɑlɪˈgɒfədʒi/

Specialized

: oligofagia

Insects that display oligophagy are often limited to a few types of plants for their nutritional needs.

Examples

Certain caterpillars exhibit oligophagy by feeding exclusively on the leaves of specific host plants.
The study focused on the oligophagy of bees, which collect nectar from a narrow range of flowering species.
To increase the chances of detecting disjunct oligophagy, one needs to elucidate the cues used by the candidate species in selecting and accepting host plants.

Academic text (2001)

Antonyms

variety

582 1.3

A group of different kinds of things

Surface Forms

oligophagy singular

oligophagies plural

Morphology

oligophagy = oligo + phagy

The term is formed from specialized combining forms oligo- ('few') + -phagy ('eating'); these morphemes are technical and not transparent to typical B1 learners.

Etymology

Oligophagy comes from the Greek parts oligo- 'few' and -phagy 'eating', the same oligo- you see in oligarchy ('rule by a few'). So it means an animal or insect 'eats only a few kinds of food', which is why scientists use it for species that feed on just a few plants.