Predatory Behaviour of the Japanese Spiny Lobster Panulirusyaponicus (Von Siebold, 1824) (Decapoda, Palinuridae) On Gastropods

Authors: Takahashi, Hideyuki; Tsuchida, Shinji; Fujiwara, Shigeyuki; Watanabe, Sechi

Source: Crustaceana, Volume 68, Number 2, 1995 , pp. 146-150(5)

Publisher: BRILL

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Abstract:

Predatory behaviour of the Japanese spiny lobster Panulirus japonicus on two gastropod species, Chlorostoma argyrosloma lischkei and Lunella coreensis, was examined, and shell size selection and time taken to feed on a shell investigated in the laboratory. Initially the shell picked up was revolved and oriented to the notch on the mandible with which lobsters broke the outer lip of it. Usually lobsters could not break the shell sufficiently to feed with one attempt, additional tries were required. Maximum size of consumed shell and minimum of not consumed were linearly related to the mandibular length of lobster. The predation time was linearly related to the cube of the shell width. Lobsters required less time to feed on C. argyrostoma lischkei than on L. coreensis, and the discrimination of shell sizes that could and could not be fed on was more clearly found for C. argyrostoma lischkei than for L. coreensis.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156854095X00034

Affiliations: 1: Laboratory of Population Biology, Tokyo University of Fisheries, 4-5-7, Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108, Japan

Publication date: 1995-01-01