ECONOMIC MAMMALOGY 



brate remains, 2.2 per cent Mollusca, 6.5 per cent Crustacea, 30 per 

 cent Insecta, 49 per cent Annelida, 8 per cent extraneous matter. 71 



In 91 stomachs, earthworms and beetle larvae formed the bulk of 

 the contents, with some slugs, grasshopper eggs, beetles, millipedes and 

 centipedes, and a few contained a little vegetation. 8 Of 36 stomachs, 

 27 contained earthworms (7 only earthworms), 27 contained insects, 

 mostly injurious (9 insects only), 10 contained a little vegetation, in all 

 but 2 evidently taken accidentally. 9 In 306 Townsend's moles (Scapanns 

 townsendii), 72.5 per cent of the contents was earthworms, a much 

 larger percentage than in the common mole, and the balance was mostly 

 insects, with some slugs and centipedes. 10 The earthworm item may 

 not be altogether to the mole's credit, but in their destruction it prob- 

 ably seldom, if ever, does much damage, and sometimes it does some 

 good, where the worms become too plentiful in gardens and pastures. 

 One California mole stomach was "filled with angleworms." 11 A cap- 

 tive mole in ten hours ate 7 cutworms and 48 earthworms, and a four- 

 hour fast during the day produced definite weakening. 12 A Brewer's 

 mole (Parascalops breiveri) , in captivity, in 24 hours ate "50 large white 

 grubs, one chestnut worm, one wireworm, one cicada nymph, 45 larvae 

 of rose bugs and 13 earthworms," leading to the conclusion that in one 

 year one mole would eat 40,000 insects and worms, weighing over 50 

 pounds. 13 Moles have been known to destroy wasps' nests in the ground 

 and to eat the larvae and pupae, 14 and we are told of a rat-eating mole. 15 



Nature is very complex, and there may be biological interrelations 

 which make it unwise to destroy all the moles in gardens and lawns, 

 even when they appear to be doing some damage. Seton 16 repeats a 

 story, for which he does not vouch, of a Holland gardener whose 

 lilacs and other flowering bushes were all blighted after he had trapped 



7a Hamilton, "Habits of the star-nosed mole, Condylura cristata" J ourn. Mam- 

 malogy, xii, 245-255, 1931. 



8 Dunnan, The common garden mole of Iowa, Iowa State Exper. Sta. Circular 

 No. 88, 1924. 



8 Rhoads, Mammals of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, p. 201, 1903 ; citing Wilson, 

 The economic status of the mole (Scalops and Condylura), Pennsylvania Dept. 

 Agric. Bull. No. 30, 1898. 



"Wight, Food habits of Townsend's mole, Scapanus townsendii (Bachman), 

 Journ. Mammalogy, ix, 19-33, 1928. 



11 Dirks, Mole eats angleworms, California Fish and Game, v, 99, 1919. 



12 Howell, Mole notes, Journ. Mammalogy, TV, 253, 1923. 



13 Brooks, Notes on the habits of mice, moles and shrews, West Virginia Univ. 

 Agric. Exper. Sta. Bull. No. 113, 1908; cited in Journ. Mammalogy, ix, 21, 1928. 



14 Brooks, Moles destroy wasps' nest, Journ. Mammalogy, iv, 183, 1923. 

 "Garrett, Rat-eating mole, The Field (London), CXLVIII, 205, 1926; Journ. 



Mammalogy, vn, 340, 1926. 



"Seton, The value of moles, Journ. Mammalogy, iv, 51, 1923. 



