Stomach contents of Mogera wogura wogura (TEMMINCK) collected in the Hanno City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Part I

Stomach contents of Mogera wogura wogura were studied based on 125 specimens trapped at the Hanno Golf Course, Hanno City, Saitama Prefecture. The contents were sorted into the following food items: animal matters, vegetable matters and others. Number of stomachs containing each food item was given for four seasonal periods, spring (March to May), summer (June to August) , autumn (September to November) and winter (December to February) . The results obtained were as follows: Insects and earthworms were the main foods of the moles. The ocourrence rate of Formicidae (adult) was the highest and Scarabaeidae (larvae) was the second. The number of stomachs containing the larvae of Scarabaeidae was found in winter and spring in plenty, but that of the adults was seen in summer and autumn, and that of the hairs of M.w. wogura as a mass was often found in winter and spring. Namely, because these seasons were breeding seasons of the moles they seemed to fight with each other. And hairs found thin in each stomachs in summer and autumn seemed to be swallowed in case of grooming. All vegetable matters were found as fibers in the stomachs in summer. Sand and soil were found in most of the stomachs. They seemed to be swallowed with other foods, moreover they might have come out of the intestines of earthworms.