WPrinted in Great Britain THE SWIMMING RESPONSE AND ITS PACEMAKER SYSTEM IN THE ANEMONE STOMPHIA COCCINEA
Sound and the San Juan Islands respond to contact with certain starfish or to suitable electrical stimulation with a characteristic sequence of activity. They retract, re-expand, detach from the substratum, and display a series of abrupt bending movements which may continue for several minutes. An i...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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1961
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.557.8582 http://jeb.biologists.org/content/38/3/685.full.pdf |
| Summary: | Sound and the San Juan Islands respond to contact with certain starfish or to suitable electrical stimulation with a characteristic sequence of activity. They retract, re-expand, detach from the substratum, and display a series of abrupt bending movements which may continue for several minutes. An inert recovery period is followed by re-attach-ment to the substratum. The only species so far known to provoke this response are the starfish Hippasteria spinosa Verrill and Dermasterias imbricata Grube. The world distribution of the genus Hippasteria overlaps to some extent that of Stompfna,vfhich is a widespread North European-Arctic form, but Dermasterias is strictly indigenous to the north-west American coast. Neither starfish seems to affect the anemone in any other way, and the significance of this particular response is difficult to understand. It is thus of especial interest that K. W. Ockelmann * has now found that Stomphia coccinea from the Oresund-Kattegat region will swim in response not only to Hippa-steria pkrygiana Parelius but also to Aeolidia papillosa L. Since the nudibranch will feed on Stomphia and occurs in the same habitat, the swimming behaviour can be regarded as an escape reaction to predators which is also evoked by certain starfish. |
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