Predation at a Snail's Pace: What's Time to a Gastropod?

Predation by naticid gastropods shows evidence of adaptation to maximize the rate of energy intake. The predation rate of Polinices duplicatus feeding on artificially altered, thin-shelled Mercenaria mercenaria was faster than the predation rate on normal Mercenaria. The rate of energy intake was li...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oecologia 1984-04, Vol.62 (1), p.13-17
Main Authors: Boggs, Christofer H., Rice, James A., Kitchell, Jennifer A., Kitchell, James F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal ethology
Biological and medical sciences
Cost efficiency
Ecological competition
Energy efficiency
Experimentation
Forage
Foraging
Fossils
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Grinding
Marine
Mercenaria mercenaria
Polinices duplicatus
Predation
Predators
Protozoa. Invertebrata
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
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Summary:Predation by naticid gastropods shows evidence of adaptation to maximize the rate of energy intake. The predation rate of Polinices duplicatus feeding on artificially altered, thin-shelled Mercenaria mercenaria was faster than the predation rate on normal Mercenaria. The rate of energy intake was limited by handling time. The time saved by predation on thin-shelled prey was used to forage. Thus time was shown to be valuable to P. duplicatus, and cost-benefit functions using time and energy as currencies are appropriate for estimating dietary efficiency and predicting prey choice. Despite the clear superiority of thin-shelled prey, P. duplicatus did not learn to prefer this novel prey type, suggesting that predator choices are sterotyped, reflecting optima selected over evolutionary time.
ISSN:0029-8549
1432-1939
DOI:10.1007/BF00377366