“…Most of the ingested organic matter passes through the invertebrate gut relatively unchanged chemically, but much fragmented and more amenable to microbial decomposition, especially when it is incorporated into the soil. Litter decomposition is generally found to be significantly retarded in experiments where invertebrates are excluded (Seastedt, 1984), and a sur-face layer of raw organic matter can develop rapidly when earthworms are suppressed by pesticides (Raw, 1962;Clements, 1982). Likewise, in the absence of an adequate coprophagous fauna, vertebrate dung can accumulate on pasture with consequent problems such as nutrient immobilization, pasture fouling, sward deterioration, and nuisance flies (Ferrar, 1973;Hughes et aI., 1978).…”