Effects of treatment with sodium fluoride and subsequent starvation on fluoride content of earthworms.

Abstract

The two experiments described here originated during a long-term investigation into the occurrence and movement of pollutant fluoride in a terrestrial ecosystem. Moles (Talpa europaea) whose diet consist largely of various species of earthworm Lumbricidae, are one of the species under investigation. Bone fluoride in moles was found to be higher, on average, than in foxes or small rodents. Moles probably acquire fluoride from their earthworm diet. Earthworms do not have any readily identifiable tissue in which to store large amounts of fluoride but, for their size, they have a considerable amount of soil in their gut, up oto 20% of their dry weight. Preliminary measurements of fluoride in whole earthworms suggested that observed levels could probably be accounted for by fluoride bound in the mineral part of contained soil and released during preparatory ashing. Two experiments to investigate this situation are described; here their aims were: to expose earthworms kept in soil to different concentrations of sodium fluoride; to measure resulting fluoride in earthworms when soil was removed from their gut by starvation for varying periods of time; and to compare amounts of fluoride in whole starved earthworms with those in starved earthworms from which remaining soil had alsomore » been physically removed by dissection and washing.« less