Sex differences in Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) retrieved from Adélie penguin stomachs: implications for diet analysis

Abstract.

The morphological condition of Euphausia superba samples, retrieved from the stomachs of Adélie penguins, was examined to assess current methods of diet analysis. Male E. superba specimens were generally separated between the cephalothorax and abdomen while the majority of the females were intact. This finding has implications for current methods of analysis that use an "intact carapace" as a criterion for subsample selection. Such a criterion eliminates all individuals without a cephalothorax, which in this study were mostly male. Consequently, this subsampling method may lead to an underestimation of the male component of the sample.