Feeding in Scyllaea pelagica
October 21, 2002
From: Jason P. Turner
Dr. Rudman,
I am a graduate student at Texas A&M University at Galveston investigating trophic interaction within Sargassum communities in the western Gulf of Mexico. I was wondering if you could help me with some references related to feeding preferences in Scyllaea pelagica. The only citation I can find is by Fine 1970 who describes a paper by Hentschel (1922) who notes that hydroids were not an important component in their food based upon a lack of them upon examination of the gut. I saw on your Forum the discussion on their mouth structures dictating carnivorous feeding, however, do you have any references I could track down which outlines their feeding preferences. Thanks again and I enjoyed the forum and the wonderful pictures.
Thanks, and any information you could offer would be helpful.
• Fine, M.L. 1970. Faunal variation on pelagic Sargassum. Marine Biology, 7: 112-122.
• Hentschel, E. 1922. Mitt. zool. Mus. Hamb. 38: 1-26
Jason Turner
Texas A&M University - Galveston
Fisheries Ecology Research Laboratory Galveston, Texas
turnerj@tamug.tamu.edu
Turner, J.P., 2002 (Oct 21) Feeding in Scyllaea pelagica. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/8235Dear Jason,
You raise an interesting point - when you burrow into the literature you find that some information is either not very soundly based - or may be based on personal observations which were never published. I have always assumed Scyllaea was a hydroid feeder and Thompson & Brown (1981) state that it 'feeds upon hydroids attached to [floating oceanic] algae'. However they cite no references and after a quick look through references I have on the species I can find no reference to any feeding infomation. That is not to say it doesn't feed on hydroids, its just I don't know who has actually observed it doing so. It is possible someone can help with a reference or observations
Best wishes
Bill Rudman
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