Abstract
This note gives a summary of the results of a mathematical investigation into sampling theory of the negative binomial distr. Insect counts in the field (and other population counts) are often fitted fairly well by a negative binomial distr. descr. by the mean m and the exponent k. Methods for estimating k from a single large sample and from several samples are illustrated by a numerical example (counts of eggs of Aphis fabae on hedgerow shoots).
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