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Biol Bull 141: 449-457. (December 1971)
© 1971 Marine Biological Laboratory
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A STUDY OF HOMING BEHAVIOR IN THE LIMPET SIPHONARIA ALTERNATA

SUSAN BLACKFORD COOK 1

1 Department of Zoology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27706

1. The pulmonate limpet Siphonaria alternata returns consistently to fixed "home" positions on intertidal rocks when rocks are completely covered with water at high tide and when rocks begin to dry out at low tide.

2. Limpets homed after rock rotation, were able to follow paths made by other limpets on foreign rocks, and did not follow paths characteristic of reverse-displacement. These results eliminate use of external clues, topographic memory, and reverse-displacement and indicate that limpets home by using clues that they have previously created on rocks.

3. Limpets can follow mucous trails that they have previously laid on clean glass slides in the laboratory. This result indicates that limpets can follow mucous trails without using paths made by radula marks in algal cover. This behavior does not result from random movements.

4. The above results support the hypothesis that homing S. alternata retrace mucous trails that they have laid previously.






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