Abstract
THE question whether in the intestinal tract of arthropoda and worms, living in the soil and feeding on it, a specific micronora, differing from that of the soil, is existing or not has not yet been clarified. According to some authors the intestinal flora is essentially identical with that of the soil1,2. Others have found it different and characteristic of the animal species or group3–5. We examined this problem on streptomycetes living in the intestine of Bibio marci larvae. The larvae are extremely widespread in numerous soil-types of Middle Europe and live in populations containing 400 to 2,000 individuals (from the same egg-laying). Those examined by us were taken from a rendsina soil, where their food consisted of forest litter and the organic material of the soil. More than 500 larvae were dissected for the examination of the intestinal content, and the microbiological analysis of many excrement masses, which had accumulated under the larva-populations, was also carried out.
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SZABÓ, I., MARTON, M. Problem of Absolute and Relative Specificity of Intestinal Microfloras based on Investigations on Bibio marci (Diptera) Larvae. Nature 209, 221–222 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/209221a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/209221a0
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