Secondary Coloniser
Definition
A species that requires a chemical or physical change produced by primary colonisers before it can exploit the resource: cheese skippers attracted by butyric acid, or dermestids exploiting dry tissue left by blow fly larval consumption.
Related terms
- Carrion Succession
- The predictable, roughly sequential replacement of insect communities on a decomposing body, driven by changing chemical substrate. Not a strict relay with...
- Faunal Assemblage
- The complete community of arthropod species present at a body at a given time. Comparing an observed assemblage against reference succession data...
- Primary Coloniser
- A species that exploits the body directly, typically arriving at or very soon after death, before decomposition has substantially modified the resource....
- Successional PMI Window
- The time range implied by knowing that the body is in a particular succession stage. Broader than a development-based estimate but extends...
- Tertiary Coloniser
- A predator or parasite that feeds on primary or secondary colonisers rather than directly on the body. Their presence on a corpse...
Explained in
- Insect Succession Waves on a CorpseA species that requires a chemical or physical change produced by primary colonisers before it can exploit the resource: cheese skippers attracted by butyric a...