TERM: Description of glossary term.


eartheater

Context: Behavior.

Name applied to the cichlid species of the Geophaginae subfamily, charaterized by their mode of searching for food: they take a mouthful of fine substrate, chew it and having separated the edible particles (with the use of specialized gill rakers), spit out the sand or remove it via gills. The name is a direct translation from the latin name Geophagus, which was coined from Greek geos (earth) and phagein (eat).

Reference

Coad, Brian & D.E. McAllister. 2007. "Dictionary of Ichtyology". Brian W. Coad. Retrieved on June 21, 2014, from:http://www.briancoad.com/Dictionary/Complete%20Dictionary.htm (crc06223)

Wikipedia