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Full-Text Articles in Marine Biology
Cannibalism Causes Size-Dependent Intraspecific Predation Pressure But Does Not Trigger Autotomy In The Intertidal Gastropod Agaronia Propatula, Ariel Z. Cyrus, Jennifer Swiggs, Pilar Santidrian Tomillo, Frank V. Paladino, Winfried S. Peters
Cannibalism Causes Size-Dependent Intraspecific Predation Pressure But Does Not Trigger Autotomy In The Intertidal Gastropod Agaronia Propatula, Ariel Z. Cyrus, Jennifer Swiggs, Pilar Santidrian Tomillo, Frank V. Paladino, Winfried S. Peters
Winfried S. Peters
Autotomy of the foot is readily inducible in the predatory marine gastropod Agaronia propatula (Conrad, 1849), but the natural trigger of the autotomy response is obscure. Since cannibalistic predation has been observed in the species while interspecific predation on A. propatula has not, it was hypothesized that autotomy in A. propatula helps to defend against cannibalism. This hypothesis was tested in the present study. In our Costa Rican study population, autotomy as well as cannibalism occurred at significant rates; morphological indicators of foot regeneration suggested that 9–23% of the animals had autotomized previously, while about 5% of all observed predation …