A Quantitative Method for Estimating the Amount of Earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) in Animal Diets

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Abstract
The quantitative analysis of mammalian and avian diets which include earthworms can be difficult if diagnostic structures such as gizzard rings cannot be found. As an alternative, the dry weight of earthworm and its energy equivalent can be estimated directly from counts and measurements of the chaetae found in stomach and faecal samples. A strong exponential relationship is demonstrated between the average length of an individual worm''s chaetae and its dry weight and energy content. This can be used to estimate the dry weight or energy per segment from the length of a subsample of chaetae and the total number of segments from the total count of chaetae in the sample.

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