cactophile

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English

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Etymology

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From cacto- +‎ -phile.

Noun

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cactophile (plural cactophiles)

  1. (biology) An animal which lives in or feeds on cacti.
    • 1985, Hot Deserts and Arid Shrublands, Part 1, page 163:
      Other insects are cactophiles, including Homoptera such as the cactus dodger (Cacama valvata) []
    • 2002, Nancy B. Simmons, “Phylogeny and Convergence in Cactophilic Bats”, in Theodore H. Fleming, Alfonso Valiente-Banuet, editors, Columnar Cacti and Their Mutualists: Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation, page 89:
      Phyllostomus discolor is an opportunistic cactophile that occasionally visits flowering columnar cacti in the Venezuelan Andes (Sosa and Soriano, 1996) .
    • 2003, Journal of Experimental Biology, volume 206, number 7, page 1185:
      Although not all cactophiles live in deserts, they and their host plants tend to inhabit dry regions.
  2. A person who is especially fond of cacti.
    • 1984, Del Weniger, Cacti of Texas and Neighboring States: A Field Guide, page 159:
      As a group they present all of the challenges in collecting, classifying, and culturing cacti which the most ardent cactophile can desire.
    • 2005, Cactus and Succulent Journal, volume 77, numbers 1-6, page 56:
      I'm a cactophile yet my favorite plant (I define favorite as the one plant that will make me cry should it ever leave me for the great botanists in the sky) is a Haemantha albiflos.
    • 2020, John Bagnasco, Bob Reidmuller Jr., Succulents: Choosing, Growing, and Caring for Cactuses and Other Succulents, page 112:
      Googly eyes are often added to this plant as a novelty. One look at it captures the imagination of every cactophile.
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