the common name applied to any of 450 or so species of mammals (mammal)—comprising hedgehogs (hedgehog), golden moles (golden mole), “true” moles (mole), “true” shrews (shrew), the moonrat, gymnures (gymnure), solenodons (solenodon), and tenrecs (tenrec)—that subsist primarily on insects, other arthropods, and earthworms.

Insectivora is obsolete as a taxonomic order, but the term insectivore is still used to refer to the remaining members, which have been classified into three orders: Soricimorpha, Erinaceomorpha, and Chrysochloridea. Together these three orders are called grandorder Lipotyphla by mammalogists, its members being referred to as either lipotyphlans or insectivores.

Insectivores make up almost 10 percent of all mammal species, and most are the size of mice or small rats. The white-toothed pygmy shrew (Suncus etruscus), however, weighs less than 2.5 grams (0.09 ounce) and is perhaps the smallest living mammal. Other insectivores, such as the moonrat (Echinosorex gymnura) and the tailless tenrec (Tenrec ecaudatus), attain the size of a small rabbit. Most insectivores are either ground dwellers or burrowers, but several are amphibious, and a few have adapted to life in the trees or forest understory. They prey almost entirely on invertebrates and small vertebrates. The olfactory lobes of the brain are highly developed, which indicates an acute sense of smell. The cerebral hemispheres, however, are small compared with those of most other placental mammals (placental mammal), which reflects less-developed intelligence and manipulative skills. Most have a long, flexible snout (proboscis) adorned with sensory whiskers (vibrissae) that is used to probe leaf litter, soil, mud, or water and locate prey by touch and smell. Prey may be pinned by the front feet, but it is typically grasped by the teeth and manipulated solely by mouth and proboscis until swallowed. Vision is poor; eyes (eye, human) are small, degenerate, or covered with skin in solenodons, shrews, moles, and golden moles. Although the eyes are larger in hedgehogs, the moonrat, gymnures, and tenrecs, they are still smaller than in other orders of living mammals. Hearing is acute. Insectivores vocalize by hisses and snarls or with a range of other sounds, including ultrasonics; some use specialized spines to produce sounds, and a few can echolocate (echolocation).

Classification of insectivores has been problematic since the founding of modern taxonomy by Carolus Linnaeus (Linnaeus, Carolus). In 1758 he placed hedgehogs, shrews, and moles with opossums, armadillos, and pigs in the order Bestiae, as all have a long snout. In 1795 hedgehogs, shrews, and moles were separated from the others and joined with bears and other carnivores in the order Plantigrades, because all walk on the soles of their feet (plantigrade). Hedgehogs, shrews, and moles were placed in the family Subterranea, order Faculata, in 1811, but all had been recognized as “insectivores” by 1816, and that common name was latinized as Insectivora in 1821. By 1855 the first few genera of tree shrews and elephant shrews had been described and included within Insectivora, and in 1866 the order was divided into suborder Menotyphla, containing tree shrews and elephant shrews, and suborder Lipotyphla for hedgehogs, shrews, moles, and their relatives. Revised classifications followed, but owing to the wide range of anatomical features present in the group, specialists could agree only that insectivores were placental mammals that could not be placed in any of the better-defined orders. Insectivora thus became basically a taxonomic “catch-all” group containing those mammals impossible to place elsewhere.

450 or so species in 64 genera and 3 orders. Fossils of 171 extinct genera and 13 extinct families have been identified. The earliest lipotyphlan fossils are from the order Soricimorpha and date to the Late Cretaceous Period in North America and Asia.