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Biol Bull 150: 80-106. (February 1976)
© 1976 Marine Biological Laboratory
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LIFE HISTORY AND PREDATOR-PREY INTERACTIONS OF THE NEMERTEAN PARANEMERTES PEREGRINA COE

PAMELA ROE 1

1 Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195

In Washington State, Paranemertes peregrina spawns in spring and summer, with minor spawning periods in fall. Juveniles from spring spawning are first easily seen the following fall, when the population consists of both adults and juveniles. Throughout winter adults die and juveniles mature, becoming ripe for the spring and summer spawnings. These adults die the following winter; the life span is thus 1.5 to 1.75 years.

P. peregrina feeds exclusively on polychaetes; at both mud flats Platynereis bicanaliculata, an annual, was abundant and the dominant prey organism.

Observations in nature and in artificial tidal flats constructed in the laboratory permitted study of foraging behavior and activity patterns. P. peregrina emerges from its burrow when exposed by the receding tide and searches haphazardly until it contacts acceptable prey. After contact, feeding takes seven to eight minutes. Then P. peregrina returns to its burrow by following its own mucus trail. Individuals often remain within a one meter radius for several months. Maximum feeding rate was determined in laboratory studies to be 0.8-0.95 prey individual per day.

In two intertidal mud flats and one rocky area, testing of predator strategy models and effects of predation on prey populations showed that in all three areas the percentages of nereids in the diets of P. peregrina were directly proportional to nereid density. Prey-species diversity was inversely proportional to nereid density. P. peregrina ate a significantly greater number of spionids during fall and winter than during spring and summer. Armandia brevis was also eaten by mud flat populations in summer, as was Ophiodromus pugettensis in one area. Polychaetes of five families comprised the diet of the nemerteans in the rocky area. Escape responses strongly affect prey availability. On mud flats P. peregrina tends to select P. bicanaliculata larger than the mean size available during fall and winter when P. bicanaliculata is small; larger nemerteans do not select larger prey than do small ones.

P. peregrina crops 14-35% of the P. bicanaliculata population per year, and probably somewhat higher proportions of Nereis vexillosa and spionid populations. At the location where predation on nereids was more intense, their recruitments were lower. By heavy predation on Platynereis, P. peregrina may help maintain densities of other polychaetes in its communities.




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H. Wang, S. Sun, and Q. Li
Laboratory Observations on the Feeding Behavior and Feeding Rate of the Nemertean Procephalothrix simulus
Biol. Bull., April 1, 2008; 214(2): 166 - 175.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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Copyright © 1976 by the Marine Biological Laboratory.