MORPHOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL DEFENSES OF TROCHOPHORE LARVAE OF SABELLARIA CEMENTARIUM (POLYCHAETA) AGAINST FOUR PLANKTONIC PREDATORS

¹ Department of Zoology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E9

Controlled experiments were conducted by offering eggs, pre-setal trochophores, and setose trochophores of the polychaete Sabellaria cementarium to four planktonic predators, Pleurobrachia bachei (Ctenophora), Aequorea victoria (Hydrozoa), brach-yuran megalopa (Crustacea), and juvenile Sebastes spp. (Pisces). Each predator species captures prey with different mechanisms and the prey, while similar in size, differ in motility and presence or absence of setae.

Consumption of non-motile eggs was greater by megalopa but less by A. victoria than consumption of pre-setal trochophores; it is suggested that differences in predator feeding mechanisms account for these differences. Setose trochophores were always consumed at lower rates than the younger stages. The evidence suggests that setae can function in larval defense against an array of predators with different feeding mechanisms, but that swimming may increase, decrease, or have no effect upon rate of predation, depending upon predator species.

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