and classes of predators Optimal foraging theory is widely applicable to feeding systems throughout the animal kingdom. Under the OFT, any organism of interest can be viewed as a predator that forages prey. There are different classes of predators that organisms fall into and each class has distinct foraging and predation strategies. True predators attack large numbers of prey throughout their life. They kill their prey either immediately or shortly after the attack. They may eat all or only part of their prey. True predators include tigers, lions, whales, sharks, seed-eating birds, ants. Grazers eat only a portion of their prey. They harm the prey, but rarely kill it. Grazers include antelope, cattle, and mosquitoes. Parasites, like grazers, eat only a part of their prey (host), but rarely the entire organism. They spend all or large portions of their life cycle living in/on a single host. This intimate relationship is typical of tapeworms, liver flukes, and plant parasites, such as the potato blight. Parasitoids are mainly typical of wasps (order Hymenoptera), and some flies (order Diptera). Eggs are laid inside the larvae of other arthropods which hatch and consume the host from the inside, killing it. This unusual predator–host relationship is typical of about 10% of all insects. Many viruses that attack single-celled organisms (such as bacteriophages) are also parasitoids; they reproduce inside a single host that is inevitably killed by the association. The optimization of these different foraging and predation strategies can be explained by the optimal foraging theory. In each case, there are costs, benefits, and limitations that ultimately determine the optimal decision rule that the predator should follow. The optimal diet model One classical version of the optimal foraging theory is the optimal diet model, which is also known as the prey choice model or the contingency model. In this model, the predator encounters different prey items and decides whether to eat what it has or search for a more profitable prey item. The model predicts that foragers should ignore low profitability prey items when more profitable items are present and abundant. The profitability of a prey item is dependent on several ecological variables. E is the amount of energy (calories) that a prey item provides the predator. Handling time (h) is the amount of time it takes the predator to handle the food, beginning from the time the predator finds the prey item to the time