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How do Starfishes open Oysters?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Paulus Schiemenz
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Extract

Many inhabitants of the sea know as well as men do that oysters are good to eat, and the destruction which they suffer on this account can scarcely be less than that brought about by human agency. Starfishes especially extirpate them in great numbers, and Möbius† maintains that they are the most pernicious enemies which the oyster possesses, although, on the other hand, people have not been wanting who held the destruction of oysters by starfishes to be a fable.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , August 1896 , pp. 266 - 285
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1896

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References

† MÖBius, K. “Ueber die Thiere der schleswig-holsteinischen Austerbänke, ihre physikalischen und biologischen Lebensverhältnisse.” Sitz.-Ber. Akad. Berlin. 1893, pp. 67–92.

‡ Fischer, P. “Faune conchyliogique marine du département de la Gironde.” Act. Soc. Linn. Bordeaux. Tome 25, 1864, pp. 257–344.

| Collins, J. W. “Notes on the oyster fishery of Connecticut.” Bull. U.S. Fish. Comm., vol ix. pp. 461–497, 1891.

* Astropecten irregularis may be taken as the representative of this group in British seas. E. J. A.

† Hamann, O., Beitrdge zur Histologie der Echinodermen. Heft 2. “Die Asteriden anatomisch und histologisch untersucht.” Jena. G. Fischer, 8vo., 1885.

* Eudes-Deslonchamps, “Notes sur l'Astérie commune.” Ann. Sci. Nat. Paris, Zool. Tome 6, pp. 219–221, 1826.

† Forbes, Edw. A History of British Starfishes and other animals of the class Echinodermata. London 8vo., 1841.

‡ Rymer Jones, Frorieps N. Notiz. Bd. 12. Nr. 288, 1839.

| Bronn, H. G., Klassen und Ordnungen des Thierreiches. Bd. 2. Actinozoa, 1860.

§ Eyton, T. C., “A history of the oyster and the oyster fisheries.” The Edinburgh Review, vol. cxxvii. pp. 43–76, 1868.

In Brehm's Thierleben. Grosse Ausgabe. Auft. 2. Abth. 4. Bd. 2. Leipzig, 1878.

** Loc. cit.

†† Loc. cit.

* De MontaguÉ, FrÈRes, “Etudes pratique sur les ennemis et les maladies de l'huître dans le bassin d'Arcachon.” Act. Soc. Linn. Bordeaux, vol. xxxii. (4 ser. Tome 2). 1879.

† Smiley, Chas. W., “Notes Upon Fish and the Fisheries.” Bull. U.S. Fish. Comm., vol. v. 1885. (From a statement by Capt. S. J. Martin.)

‡ Apgar, Austin C., “The Musk-rat and the Unio.” Journal Trenton Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. i. pp. 58, 59; also in Zoologist (3), vol. ii. pp. 425–426.

* Schiemenz, P., “Ueber die Wasseraufnahme bei Lamellibranchiaten und Gastropoden (einschliesslich der Pteropoden).” 2 Theil. Mitth. Zool. Stat. Neapel. Bd. 7, pp. 423–472. 1887.

* Schiemenz, P., “Wie bohrt Natica die Muscheln an!” Mitth. Zool. Stat. Neapel. Bd. 10, pp. 153–169. 1891.

* MÖBius, K., Die Auster und die Austerwirthschaft, p. 120. Berlin, 1877.

* There is no need to explain further that gasteropods are opened in exactly the same way as bivalves; some of the tube-feet of the starfish being fixed to the shell itself, whilst others are fixed to the operculum. The gasteropods are brought into an exactly similar position.

* Lawrence-Hamilton, J., “The Limpet's Strength.” Nature, vol. xiv. p. 487. 1892.

* I have not ascertained how small a load is necessary to cause a slight opening of the shell. It only concerned me to learn whether a weight of 1350 grams is large enough.