Mucophagy (literally "mucus feeding") is defined as the act of feeding on
mucus
Mucus ( ) is a slippery aqueous secretion produced by, and covering, mucous membranes. It is typically produced from cells found in mucous glands, although it may also originate from mixed glands, which contain both serous and mucous cells. It is ...
of
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
es or
invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
s. Also, it may refer to consumption of mucus or dried mucus in
primate
Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...
s.
There are mucophagous
parasite
Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...
s, such as some types of
sea lice
Sea lice (singular: sea louse) are copepods (small crustaceans) of the family Caligidae within the order Siphonostomatoida. They are marine ectoparasites (external parasites) that feed on the mucus, epidermal tissue, and blood of host fish. Th ...
that attach themselves to
gill
A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are ...
segments of fish. In addition, these mucophages may serve as cleaners of other animals, usually fishes.
Another usage of this term is in reference to the feeding organ rich in mucous cells in which water is pumped, feeding particles get entrapped in mucus, and the latter proceeds into the
esophagus
The esophagus (American English) or oesophagus (British English; both ), non-technically known also as the food pipe or gullet, is an organ in vertebrates through which food passes, aided by peristaltic contractions, from the pharynx to the ...
.
The epibranchial organ, its innervation and its probable functioning in Heterotis niloticus (Pisces, teleostei, osteoglossidae)
/ref>
See also
* Eating mucus
Eating mucus is the act of extracting dried nasal mucus with one's finger (rhinotillexis) and the succeeding action of ingesting the mucus from the nose-picking (mucophagy).
Health
Mucophagy comes with some health risks due to the potential phys ...
* Nose-picking
Nose-picking is the act of extracting nasal mucus with one's finger (rhinotillexis) and may include the subsequent ingestion of the extracted mucus (mucophagy).
In Western cultures, this act is generally considered to be social deviant; parents ...
References
Carnivory
{{Ethology-stub