phytophagyn.

1870 G. C. Wallich Let. 3 Jan. in Deep-sea Researches 19 The lowest animal forms may be phytophagous, inasmuch as phytophagy—if I may coin a term for the occasion—does not of necessity imply feeding on living vegetable matter.

1890 Cent. Dict. Phytophagy, the habit of feeding on plants; a phytophagous regimen.

1921 Amer. Naturalist 55 142 It appears..that the entomophagous ichneumon flies have been derived directly from them [sc. free-living phytophagous Chalastogastra] and I think that the transition from phytophagy to parasitism is quite clear.

1941 Ecol. Monogr. 11 444/2 The energy sources utilized by bottom organisms are diverse, but they can be classified as those of phytophagy, zoophagy, and coprophagy.

1992 D. J. Mabberley Trop. Rain Forest Ecol. (ed. 2) 133 According to Southwood, phytophagy arose from both saprophagy, the consumption of decaying or at least dying plants, and from feeding on fallen propagules including spores and pollen grains.