Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:45:02.313Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Experiments with the behaviour of the bivalves Montacuta substriata and M. ferruginosa, ‘commensals’ with spatangoids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

John Gage
John Gage
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The behaviour involved in the maintenance of the ‘commensal’ associations of Montacuta substriata and M. ferruginosa with spatangoids was investigated experimentally.

Both species are highly mobile when isolated from the ‘host’, and this activity was recorded through their mucous trails on glass plates, and photographically with a repetitive electronic flash system. Their responses were analysed mainly in a trough apparatus with a slow flow of water. The behaviour was resolved into responses to factors normally present in their environment. These included both gravity and water currents and a chemical influence from the ‘host’ spatangoid. M. substriata showed a marked negative geotaxis, while M. ferruginosa showed a similar response but of opposite sign. Pedal activity was stimulated as a kinesis to an unknown chemical ‘attractant’ from the urchin. The bivalves showed no specificity in this response since it was shown by both species to any of the spatangoids tested, regardless of the urchin species from which they were taken.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , February 1966 , pp. 71 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1966

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Copeland, M., 1918. The olfactory reactions and organs of the marine snails, Alectrion obsoleta and Busycon canaliculatum. J. exp. Zool., Vol. 25, pp. 177–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davenport, D., 1950. Studies in the physiology of commensalism. 1. The polynoid genus Actonoe. Biol. Bull. mar. biol. Lab., Woods Hole, Vol. 98, pp. 81–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davenport, D., Camougis, G. & Hickok, J. F., 1960. Analyses of the behaviour of commensals in host-factor. I. A hesionid polychaete and a pinnotherid crab. Anim. Behav., Vol. 8, pp. 209–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doflein, I., 1925. Chemotaxis und Rheotaxis bei Planarien. qZ. vergl. Physiol., Vol. 3, pp. 62–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraenkel, G. S. & Gunn, D. L., 1940. The Orientation of Animals. 352 pp. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gage, J., 1966a. Observations on the bivalves Montacuta substriata and M. ferruginosa, ‘commensals’ with spatangoids. J. mar. biol.. Ass. U.K., Vol. 46, PP. 49–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gage, J., 1966b. A photographic method of recording the activity of small animals using repetitive electronic flash. Nature, Lond. (in the Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, J. S., 1945. Classification and nomenclature of animal behaviour. Nature, Lond., Vol. 155, p. 178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, 1957. Plymouth Marine Fauna. 3rd. ed. 457 pp. Plymouth.Google Scholar
Morton, J. E., 1960. The responses and orientation of the bivalve Lasaea rubra (Montagu), a small intertidal lamellibranch. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 39, pp. 5–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morton, J. E., 1962. Habit and orientation in the small commensal bivalve mollusc Montacuta ferruginosa. Anim. Behav., Vol. 10, pp. 126–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oldfield, E., 1961. The functional morphology of Kellia suborbicularis (Montagu), Montacuta ferruginosa (Montagu), and M. substriata (Montagu), (Mollusca Lamellibranchiata). Proc. malac. Soc. Lond., Vol. 34, pp. 255–95.Google Scholar
Popham, M. L., 1940. The mantle cavity of some of the Erycinidea, Montacutidae and Galeommatidae, with special reference to the ciliary mechanisms. J. mar. Biol. Ass. U.K. Vol. 24, pp. 549–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, C. O., 1962. The non-random behaviour of Aleochara bilineata Gyll. (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) in a Y-maze with neither reward nor punishment in either arm. Anim. Behav., Vol. 10, pp. 118–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Varley, G. C. & Edwards, R. L., 1953. An olfactometer for observing the behaviour of small animals. Nature, Lond., Vol. 171, pp. 790–1.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed