A CRITICAL REVIEW OF HOMING AND FORAGING BEHAVIOR IN LIMPETS (MOLLUSCA; GASTROPODA} : A CENTURY OF OBSERVATIONS , EXPERIMENTS , AND CONTROVERSIES (1894 TO 2001)
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Date
2002-12
Authors
April, Jane Wright
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Abstract
Homing limpets are characterized by their predictable stationary resting behavior in their home territory during periods of inactivity, followed by active feeding excursions ranging up to a few meters away from home . They almost always return to their previous resting spot (home scar) during a tidal cycle. Limpets are grazers that use their radula to scrape and feed upon microalgae, macroalgal settlers, bacteria, cyanobacteria, diatoms and other phytoplankton, and animal larva that settle inside their grazing grounds, called the feeding arena.
Home scars lie within the feeding arena and vary according to species . Most limpets live on rock, some live on macroalgal fronds, and some even live on the shells of other gastropods. Some home scars are visible as a chiseled indentation in rock that fits the shape of the limpet's shell perfectly. This depression is caused by the repeated scraping of the returning limpet's shell at the home scar. Other homing limpets do not make a strict scar, rather, they home to a region rather than a spot. Certain homing limpets will join clusters of conspecifics, returning to roughly the same position within the cluster from day to day.
Description
97 pages
Keywords
Limpets, Biology, Marine Biology