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Prey Capture Ecology of the Cubozoan Carukia barnesi
Adult Carukia barnesi medusae feed predominantly on larval fish; however, their mode of prey capture seems more complex than previously described. Our findings revealed that during light conditions, this species extends its tentacles and ‘twitches’ them frequently. This highlights the lure-like nema...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4429964/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25970583 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0124256 |
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author | Courtney, Robert Sachlikidis, Nik Jones, Rhondda Seymour, Jamie |
author_facet | Courtney, Robert Sachlikidis, Nik Jones, Rhondda Seymour, Jamie |
author_sort | Courtney, Robert |
collection | PubMed |
description | Adult Carukia barnesi medusae feed predominantly on larval fish; however, their mode of prey capture seems more complex than previously described. Our findings revealed that during light conditions, this species extends its tentacles and ‘twitches’ them frequently. This highlights the lure-like nematocyst clusters in the water column, which actively attract larval fish that are consequently stung and consumed. This fishing behavior was not observed during dark conditions, presumably to reduce energy expenditure when they are not luring visually oriented prey. We found that larger medusae have longer tentacles; however, the spacing between the nematocyst clusters is not dependent on size, suggesting that the spacing of the nematocyst clusters is important for prey capture. Additionally, larger specimens twitch their tentacles more frequently than small specimens, which correlate with their recent ontogenetic prey shift from plankton to larval fish. These results indicate that adult medusae of C. barnesi are not opportunistically grazing in the water column, but instead utilize sophisticated prey capture techniques to specifically target larval fish. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4429964 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-44299642015-05-21 Prey Capture Ecology of the Cubozoan Carukia barnesi Courtney, Robert Sachlikidis, Nik Jones, Rhondda Seymour, Jamie PLoS One Research Article Adult Carukia barnesi medusae feed predominantly on larval fish; however, their mode of prey capture seems more complex than previously described. Our findings revealed that during light conditions, this species extends its tentacles and ‘twitches’ them frequently. This highlights the lure-like nematocyst clusters in the water column, which actively attract larval fish that are consequently stung and consumed. This fishing behavior was not observed during dark conditions, presumably to reduce energy expenditure when they are not luring visually oriented prey. We found that larger medusae have longer tentacles; however, the spacing between the nematocyst clusters is not dependent on size, suggesting that the spacing of the nematocyst clusters is important for prey capture. Additionally, larger specimens twitch their tentacles more frequently than small specimens, which correlate with their recent ontogenetic prey shift from plankton to larval fish. These results indicate that adult medusae of C. barnesi are not opportunistically grazing in the water column, but instead utilize sophisticated prey capture techniques to specifically target larval fish. Public Library of Science 2015-05-13 /pmc/articles/PMC4429964/ /pubmed/25970583 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0124256 Text en © 2015 Courtney et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Courtney, Robert Sachlikidis, Nik Jones, Rhondda Seymour, Jamie Prey Capture Ecology of the Cubozoan Carukia barnesi |
title | Prey Capture Ecology of the Cubozoan Carukia barnesi
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title_full | Prey Capture Ecology of the Cubozoan Carukia barnesi
|
title_fullStr | Prey Capture Ecology of the Cubozoan Carukia barnesi
|
title_full_unstemmed | Prey Capture Ecology of the Cubozoan Carukia barnesi
|
title_short | Prey Capture Ecology of the Cubozoan Carukia barnesi
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title_sort | prey capture ecology of the cubozoan carukia barnesi |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4429964/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25970583 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0124256 |
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