Oophagia

Oophagia (from the Greek. Ωόν - an egg and φάγος - I eat) - in animals, eating eggs .

Oophagy has various manifestations. Different species eat eggs of their own or alien species . In the first case, oophagy is a manifestation of cannibalism . Flour beetle beetles ( Tenebrio ) eat their eggs at a high population density, thereby restraining its growth. One of the wasp species , Polistes biglumis, is prone to oophagia. Tritons eat eggs of both their species and fish eggs. Caviar (eggs) of other fish species periodically feed on many fish species. For example, haddock in the spring in a large number destroys herring eggs ^[1] .

Eating bird eggs is found among various animals. Many Elaphe species of snakes specialize in bird eggs. They push the eggshell through the wall of the esophagus with the lower processes of the vertebrae and absorb the contents of the egg. Among the birds, the Malay egg eater ( Ictinaetus malayensis ) consumes bird eggs, which it takes from other people's nests. ^[2] Periodically, the eggs of other species feed on many species of birds and mammals .

Intrauterine oophagy consists in the embryo eating unfertilized eggs or other embryos.

This phenomenon is found in all sharks of the Lamiform order, and is also noted in such species of sharks as the mako shark , big-eyed fox shark , pelagic fox shark , Atlantic herring shark , rusty nanny shark , as well as representatives of the false-shark family.

More often, the phenomenon of intrauterine oophagia occurs in sharks with a long- fin mako , giving birth only to two young sharks that eat all other eggs and embryos. In the sand shark Odontaspis taurus, the number of eggs in the ovary reaches 24 thousand (their total weight is 2.5 kg), they are in egg capsules, each of which contains about 20 eggs. The intrauterine development of embryos begins quite early - with a length of 4-5 cm. At the initial stages of development, the embryo uses the nutrients of the yolk sac, for its further development it needs more food. Embryos 17 cm long in body shape and development of the dental apparatus do not differ from adult sharks. Observation of live embryos about 26 cm long showed that they actively move in the cavity fluid among the fully or partially eaten egg capsules. ^[3]