Eulalia picta Kinberg, 1866 – tube builder or specialized predator?

Abstract Twenty six specimens of the polychaete Eulalia picta were found in fine-grained sand tubes. Material was collected in the Antarctic fjord, Admiralty Bay at the depth of about 100 m. The comparison of tube sediment with the sediment composition at the collection site demonstrated that tubes...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polish Polar Research
Main Authors: Pabis, Krzysztof, Sobczyk, Robert
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Walter de Gruyter GmbH 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/popore-2017-0024
http://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/popore/38/4/article-p485.xml
http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/popore.2017.38.issue-4/popore-2017-0024/popore-2017-0024.pdf
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Summary:Abstract Twenty six specimens of the polychaete Eulalia picta were found in fine-grained sand tubes. Material was collected in the Antarctic fjord, Admiralty Bay at the depth of about 100 m. The comparison of tube sediment with the sediment composition at the collection site demonstrated that tubes were created with a high degree of particle selection. Our findings might suggest presence of the tube-building behavior in E. picta or show that this species is a highly specialized predator crawling into the tubes of other sessile polychaetes and uses their tubes as protective cases.