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Colonial Independence Of Feeding Among Zooids Of The Ectoproct Lophodella Carteri (Hyatt), Leonard M. Bahr

Master's Theses

Possible interactions of feeding between zooids of colonies of the freshwater ectoproct Lophopodella carter! were investigated. Suspensions of Euglena gracilis at a concentration of 558x10³ cells ml^-1 were cleared by L. carter at a rate of 2.7 x 10^-3 ml min^-1 zooid^-1 for15 minute periods. The rate of ingestion of E. gracilis by L. carter was independent of the size of colony and decreased exponentially with time, declining to about one third the original rate in 60 minutes.