phago-, phag-, -phage, -phagi, -phagic, -phagically, -phagia, -phagism, -phagist, -phagic, -phagous, -phagy

Feeding by preying on other animals; predatory, used especially with reference to insects.

From Greek harpago-, harpag-, meaning “a hook for seizing; a robbery, rape, seizure, plunder”.

1. Blood drinking.
2. Subsisting on the blood of another animal.

The habit of certain creatures, or organisms, to feed on blood.

Some intestinal nematodes, such as the Ascaris, feed on blood extracted from the capillaries of the gut and many species of leeches are examples of hematophagous creatures.

Some fish; such as, lampreys, and certain mammals, especially the vampire bats, also practice hematophagy.

Among the hematophagous insects of medical importance are the sandfly, blackflies, tsetse flies, bedbugs, assassin bugs, mosquitoes, ticks, lice, mites, midges, chiggers, and fleas.

Feeding on a wide variety of food items; a reference to a parasite utilizing a wide variety of hosts.

Digestion within a cell of an exogenous substance phagocytosed from the cell’s environment.

Eaters of horse meat.

The practice of eating horseflesh; such as, is done by the French and Belgians in Europe; and others around the world.

Anyone who eats the meat of horses as a source of food.

Eating or subsisting on tissues; such as, certain protozoa, especially those ciliates, ectoparasitic or endoparasitic, in or on nonvital tissues of their hosts.

The eating or chewing of glass.

Belonging to the Hydradephaga or aquatic carnivorous beetles.

Feeding on wood; such as, termites.

1. The ingestion of a greater than optimal quantity of food; over eating; gluttony.
2. An abnormally increased desire for food frequently resulting from injury to the autonomic regulatory center in the brain; to gorge.

An ichthyophagist (fish eater).

1. The eating of fish; also, piscivorous.
2. The consumption of fish in the diet.