over 150 degree F.

Inhabitants of leaf litter reside close to the surface and so must
be able to experience exposure to dryer air and light for short
times without damage. The larger litter livers are called primary
decomposers. They spend most of their time chewing on the thick
reserve of moist leaves contacting the forest floor. Primary
decomposers are unable to digest the entire leaf. They extract only
the easily assimilable substances from their food: proteins, sugars
and other simple carbohydrates and fats. Cellulose and lignin are
the two substances that make up the hard, permanent, and woody parts
of plants; these materials cannot be digested by most soil animals.
Interestingly, just like in a cow's rumen, there are a few larvae
whose digestive tract contains cellulose-decomposing bacteria but
these larvae have little overall effect.

After the primary consumers are finished the leaves have been
mechanically disintegrated and thoroughly moistened, worked over,
chewed to tiny pieces and converted into minuscule bits of moist
excrement still containing active digestive enzymes. Many of the
bacteria and fungi that were present on the leaf surfaces have
passed through this initial digestion process alive or as spores
waiting and ready to activate. In this sense, the excrement of the
primary decomposers is not very different than manure from large
vegetarian mammals like cows and sheep although it is in much
smaller pieces.

Digestive wastes of primary decomposers are thoroughly inoculated
with microorganisms that can consume cellulose and lignin. Even
though it looks like humus, it has not yet fully decomposed. It does