Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T22:54:40.708Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The life-history of Tubularia indivisa (Hydrozoa: Tubulariidae) with observations on the status of T. ceratogyne

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2009

R. G. Hughes
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, Westfield College, University of London, London, NW3 7ST

Abstract

The life-history of hydroids from a mixed population of Tubularia indivisa and ‘T. ceratogyne’, from an intertidal site at Felixstowe, Suffolk, has been studied. Tubularia breed throughout the year, but recruitment is greatest in spring with a smaller peak in late summer. The spring-recruited hydroids are the progeny of T. indivisa, but during the summer they mature as ‘T. ceratogyne’ and breed to produce the T. indivisa that dominate the population in spring. It is concluded, on this evidence, that ‘T. ceratogyne’ is a form of T. indivisa.

In this population T. indivisa suffers from predation by the nudibranch Dendronotus frondosus, and their mortality rate varies from 2% per month in winter to 70% per month in summer. The life-span of T. indivisa is approximately one year, but their mean post-larval life expectancy varies from 30 days (spring recruitment) to 160 days (autumn recruitment). There is no evidence that autotomy of the hydranth is an integral part of the life of T. indivisa.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1983

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

REFERENCES

Allman, G. J., 1872. A Monograph of the Gymnoblastic or Tubularian Hydroids. 450 pp. London: Ray Society.Google Scholar
Bell, G., 1976. On breeding more than once. American Naturalist, 100, 5777.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonnevie, K., 1898. Zur Systematik der Hydroiden. Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie, 63, 465495.Google Scholar
Calow, P., 1978. Life Cycles: An Evolutionary Approach to the Physiology of Reproduction, Development and Aging. 164 pp. London: Chapman and Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapman, G. & Stebbing, A. R. D., 1980. The modular habit – a recurring strategy. In Development and Cellular Biology ofCoelenterates (ed. Tardent, P. and Tardent, R.), pp. 157162. Amsterdam: Elsevie'North-Holland Biomedical Press.Google Scholar
Corlett, J., 1948. Rates of settlement and growth of the ‘pile’ fauna of the Mersey Estuary. Proceedings and Transactions of the Liverpool Biological Society, 56, 228.Google Scholar
Hincks, T., 1868. A History of British Hydroid Zoophytes. 2 vols. London: John van Voorst.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, R. G., 1977. Aspects of the biology and life-history of Nemertesia antennina (L.) (Hydrozoa: Plumulariidae). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 57, 641657.Google Scholar
Mackie, G. O., 1966. Growth of the hydroid Tubularia in culture. In The Cnidaria and Their Evolution (ed. Rees, W. J.), pp. 397412. Academic Press.Google Scholar
Macleod, P. & Valiela, I., 1975. The effect of density and mutual interference by a predator: a laboratory study of predation by the nudibranch Coryphella rufibranchialis on the hydroid Tubularia larynx. Hydrobiologia, 47, 339346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osman, R. W. 1977. The establishment and development of a marine epifaunal community. Ecological Monographs, 47, 3763.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pérez, C. 1920. Notes sur la faune marine du Boulonnais. II. Tubularia ceratogyne n.sp. Bulletin de le Société zoologique de France, 45, 171177.Google Scholar
Pyefinch, K. A. & Downing, F. S. 1949. Notes on the general biology of Tubularia larynx Ellis and Solander. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 28, 2144.Google Scholar
Rungger, D., 1969. Autotomy in Tubularia crocea and its ecological and physiological significance. Pubblicazione della Stazione zoologica di Napoli, 37, 95139.Google Scholar
Schmid, B., Schmid, V. & Tardent, P., 1974. The umbrella growth processes in the leptomedusa Phialidium hemisphaericum (syn. Campanularia johnstoni). Experientia, 30, 13991400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stearns, S., 1976. Life-history tactics: a review of the ideas. Quarterly Review of Biology, 51, 347.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strehler, B. L., 1961. Aging in coelenterates. In The Biology of Hydra and of Some Other Coelenterates (ed. Lenhoffand, H. M., Loomis, W. F.), pp. 373398. University of Miami Press.Google Scholar
Svoboda, A. 1973. Underwater observations on the life cycle of Corymorpha nutans. Helgoldnder wissenschaftliche Meeresuntersuchungen, 24, 145150.Google Scholar
Swenander, G., 1904. Über die athecaten hydroiden des Drontheimsfjordes. Kongelige Norske videnskabernes selskabs skrifter, no. 6, 18 pp.Google Scholar
Tardent, P., 1963. Regeneration in the Hydrozoa. Biological Reviews, 38, 293333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, T. E. & Brown, G. H., 1976. British opisthobranch molluscs. Synopses of the British Fauna, no. 8, 203 pp.Google Scholar
Toth, S. E., 1969. Aging and regression in the colonial marine hydroid Campanularia flexuosa with special reference to senescence in hydroids. International Review of General and Experimental Zoology, 4, 4979.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wermuth, J. F., 1980. Gamma radiation and hydranth longevity in Campanularia flexuosa: age dependency of dose response function. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass., 159, 752759.Google Scholar