Describing an organism that combines autotrophic and heterotrophic nutrition. Certain plants, notably carnivorous species such as Venus flytraps and sundews, supplement their photosynthetic lifestyle by capturing and digesting insects or other small animals as a source of additional nitrogen. However, mixotrophy is far more widespread among protists and bacteria and takes many different forms, with varying degrees of autotrophy and heterotrophy. For example, many photosynthesizing algal species in marine and freshwater plankton can also consume bacteria as prey. Conversely, some heterotrophic dinoflagellates and ciliates ingest algae and retain the chloroplasts of their prey in a functioning state to provide carbohydrate to the host. In some cases more intimate and long-standing symbiotic relationships have evolved, e.g. between rhizarians and microalgae. It can be argued, however, that the sharing of nutritional roles in such associations is not ‘true’ mixotrophy.