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Animalia >Annelida >Polychaeta >Phyllodocidae >Nereididae >Perinereis >

This movie shows that a nereidid polychaete Perinereis cultrifera ingests the mucus net secreted by a vermetid gastropod Serpulorbis imbricatus in the laboratory. P. cultrifera which hid itself in a crevice of the S. imbricatus shell appeared into the water, caught the mucus, and swallowed it in ca. one minute. Because the mucus of S. imbricatus works to catch suspension and contains its own food, the mucus ingestion of P. cultrifera is considered as a kind of kleptoparasitism against S. imbricatus. Although the behavior in this movie was recorded during daytime (at around 15:58), most of the mucus ingestion are usually made during nighttime. The reason may be that the suspension mass and the feeding activity of S. imbricatus increase during nighttime, or that P. cultrifera escapes from predators using visual cues during daytime.
Specimens were collected from Takasu beach, Matsukage, Fukui, Japan. The first cut plays at 36-speed and the latter at 9-speed. For more information about feeding of S. imbricatus, see "Feeding behavior of a vermetid gastropod, Serpulorbis imbricatus" (Data No.momo030208si01b).

(Data No.momo031205pc01b)

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