New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Sex selective predation of deep-sea, meiobenthic copepods by pectinacean bivalves and its influence on copepod sex ratios

GEOFFREY R. F. HICKS, BRUCE A. MARSHALL

National Museum of New Zealand Private Bag, Wellington New Zealand

Abstract An alternative hypothesis is presented which accounts for heavily female biased sex ratios in deep-sea, sediment dwelling, harpacticoid copepods. Deep-sea, carnivorous bivalves (Mollusca: Pectinacea) are shown to have guts containing an almost exclusive diet of male harpacticoids. Significant removal of males by predation is believed to be responsible for the commonly observed dominance by females in deep-water assemblages. It is speculated that bioluminescence or chemosensory mechanisms might be implicated in this relationship.

Keywords sex ratio; predation; deep sea; harpacticoid copepods; bivalve molluscs; bioluminescence; mimicry; chemosensory pathways

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1985, Vol. 19: 227-231 Received 18 September 1984; accepted 10 October 1984

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (363K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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