CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The microhistological analysis quantifies the botanical composition of herbivore diets by theidentification of the epidermal characters of ingested species. Many Papilionaceae form part of herbivore diets due to their high nutritive quality. Different species of this family are sometimes grouped together due to the difficulty to recognize them. In this study, the epidermis of Lotus tenuis, Medicago arabica, Medicago lupulina, Melilotus albus, Trifolium pratense and Trifolium repens was analysed. Also, it was tested if such descriptions could be useful to identify fragments of these species in hand-composed mixtures and then quantified by microanalysis. Descriptions and drawings are presented. Regressions were significant (p<0.05) for Lotus tenuis, Medicago arabica, Medicago lupulina, Melilotus albus, Trifolium pratense, and not significant (p>0.05) for Trifolium repens. The slopes of the significant regressions did not differ from 1 (p>0.05). The identification of these species when present in herbivore faeces or in digestive tract contents is possible.