Avoidance and escape responses of the sub-antarctic limpetNacella edgari(Powell) (Mollusca: Gastropoda) to the sea starAnasterias perrieri(Smith) (Echinodermata: Asteroidea)
✍ Scribed by James B. McClintock
- Book ID
- 104776188
- Publisher
- Springer
- Year
- 1985
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 423 KB
- Volume
- 4
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0722-4060
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✦ Synopsis
The sub-antarctic limpet Nacella edgari (Powell) (Patellidae) has avoidance and escape responses to the sea star Anasterias perrieri (Smith) (Asteriidae) in a kelp forest and in the laboratory. Nacella edgari was preyed upon in the field by A. perrieri, but frequency of capture was low, suggesting the effectiveness of defensive behaviors. Both avoidance and escape responses by the limpet consisted of extension and waving of the pallial tentacles, mushrooming and rotation of the shell and flight. However, escape responses were characterized by greatly intensified rotation of the shell through a horizontal plane. This study extends the evaluation of defensive responses in gastropods to a species which occurs in the southern Indian Ocean.
fera forests along the coast of Kerguelen (Arnaud 1974).
There it co-occurs in high abundance with the asteroid Anasterias perrieri (Smith) (Asteriidae). Both limpets and sea stars occur frequently on holdfasts, stipes, and blades of M. pyrifera (Arnaud 1974; McClintock, personal observation). Co-occurrence on M. pyrifera results in frequent encounters between these mobile invertebrates.
The purposes of this study were to investigate the relative abundance of these two species within their kelp forest habitat and to ascertain whether Anasteriasperrieri preys on Nacella edoari; to describe the avoidance and escape responses of N. edgari and A. perrieri in the laboratory and the field; and to extend the evaluation of the defensive responses of limpets to a polar environment.