Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T17:51:55.990Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Behaviour, irrigation and respiration in Eudistylia vancouveri (Polychaeta: Sabellidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Adriana Giangrande
Adriana Giangrande
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Biologia, Universita di Lecce, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

To evaluate the relative importance of tentacular crown and body surface in sabellid respiration, experiments were carried out on Eudistylia vancouveri (Kinberg, 1867), a long narrow worm living in a permanent tube in the intertidal zone. This species irrigates its tube by peristaltic waves, as do most species of Sabellinae and this allows water circulation inside the tube for body surface respiration.

Measurements of oxygen uptake after amputation of the tentacular crown indicated a reduction of about 80% of the total respiration. This value was higher than that found for other Sabellinae studied. Some predictions about other species were made on the basis of the present observations and of comparison with species having similar aptitudes.

The habit of living in a narrow tube protruding from the sea bottom, as occurs among sabellids, implies some adaptations concerning feeding, excretion and respiration. In the order Sabellida, the prostomium is reduced and fused to the peristomium which usually forms a large tentacular crown (Fauchald, 1977) with both feeding and respiratory functions. Its relative importance in respiration, however, is still little known. Survival after crown amputation suggests that this structure is not essential for respiration; moreover some species can autotomize and regenerate it (Berrill, 1931; Okada, 1934). In sabellids, respiration can in fact occur at the level of the body surface and this is made possible by the flux of the water contained in the tube which is generated by the worm itself: i.e. irrigation. Sabellinae species can actively irrigate their tubes by waves of muscular contraction of the body wall in either direction.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 71 , Issue 1 , February 1991 , pp. 27 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BerrillN.J., N.J., 1931. Regeneration in Sabella pavonina (Sav.) and other sabellid worms. Journal of Experimental Zoology, 58, 495–523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BerrillN.J., N.J., 1977. Functional morphology and development of segmental inversion in sabellid polychaetes. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory. Woods Hole, Mass., 153, 453–467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DalesP.R., P.R., 1961. Observation on the respiration of the sabellid polychaete Schizobranchia insignis. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory. Woods Hole, Mass., 121, 89–91.Google Scholar
FauchaldK., K., 1977. The Polychaete Worms: Definition and Keys to the Orders, Families and Genera. Los Angeles: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. (Science Series 28.)Google Scholar
FitzhughK., K., 1989. A systematic revision of the Sabellidae-Caobangiidae-Sabellongidae complex (Annelida: Polychaeta). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 192, 1–104.Google Scholar
FoxH.M., H.M., 1938. On the blood circulation and metabolism of sabellids. Proceedings of the Royal Society (B), 125, 554–569.Google Scholar
Knight-JonesP., P., 1981. Behaviour, setal inversion and phylogeny of Sabellida (Polychaeta). Zoologica Scripta, 10, 183–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MerzA.R., A.R., 1984, Self-generated versus environmentally produced feeding currents: a comparison for the sabellid polychaete Eudistylia vancouveri. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass., 167, 200–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MettamC., C., 1969. Peristaltic waves of tubicolous worms and the problem of irrigation in Sabella pavonina. Journal of Zoology, 158, 341–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OkadaY.K., Y.K., 1934. Regeneration de la tête chez le polychète Myxicola aestetica. Bulletin Biologique de la France et de la Belgique, 68, 340–384.Google Scholar
ShumwayS.E., S.E.,Bogdanowicz, C. & DeanD., D., 1988. Oxygen consumption and feeding rates of the sabellid polychaete Myxicola infundibulum (Renier). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, 90, 425–428.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
WellsG.P., G.P., 1951. On the behaviour of Sabella. Proceedings of the Royal Society (B), 138, 278–299.Google ScholarPubMed
WellsG.P., G.P., 1952. The respiratory significance of the crown in the polychaete worms Sabella and Myxicola. Proceeding of the Royal Society (B), 140, 70–82.Google ScholarPubMed
ZoondA., A., 1931. Studies in the localization of respiratory exchange in invertebrates. II. The branchial filaments of the sabellid Bispira volutacornis. Journal of Experimental Biology, 8,258–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar