Published in Scientific Papers. Series A. Agronomy, Vol. LXV, Issue 1
Written by Madalina IORDACHE, Adriana ROTARU, Ioan GAICA
This research aimed to study in a laboratory experiment some aspects regarding the feeding behaviour of the earthworm Eisenia fetida: food location and selection, time towards food, time to access food. The experiment has been carried out as a quick test: earthworm released and placed at 15 cm distance away from a food source consisting of two adjacent substrates in order to observe the ability to locate food and to select a certain substrate of the food source: soil and respectively, soil mixed with earthworm food commercially purchased. The results of this experiment showed that earthworms Eisenia fetida possess the ability to locate the organic food source used within the experiment. A proportion of 90% of tested earthworms were able to locate the food source, and 70% of earthworms were able to choose a specific food substrate from two available. A proportion of 30% of earthworms reached the food source in the first 1-2 minutes after exposure, 20% during 2-3 minutes, 30% after 4-5 minutes, and 10% after 6-7 minutes of exposure. The statistical interpretations of the achieved results (Chi-square Goodness-of-fit-test) showed that earthworms Eisenia fetida are able to rapidly identify the organic food sources and chose between food sources, and these are not random behaviours.
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