Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-14T10:54:17.668Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cryptic polymorphism in the cirratulid polychaete, Cirriformia tentaculata

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

J. David George
J. David George
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History), London, S.W.7
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Investigations showed that populations of Cirriformia tentaculata (Montagu) at Plymouth, Coverack and Salcombe produce both free-swimming and demersal larvae from single egg batches. The proportion of free-swimming to demersal larvae varies from one brood to another but is constant in different cultures from a single brood. Control of the proportion in which the two behavioural types are produced appears to be genotypic and not phenotypic. The larval types could not be separated morphologically but additional evidence for the existence of polymorphism in the species was provided by the variation of esterase pattern between adults. The population that existed in Southampton water previous to the winter of 1962/63 and which produced only demersal larvae was probably genetically isolated from other populations of the worm and showed behaviour atypical of the species as a whole.

Introduction

Since the publication of a note reporting behavioural differences existing between the larval stages of Cirriformia tentaculata (Montagu) from Southampton Water and from Plymouth Sound (George, 1963), continuing investigations have shed more light on the problem. Observation of the Southampton population from 1959 to 1962 showed that demersal larvae were produced throughout the breeding season, from May to September (George, 1964a), whereas Wilson (1936) found that a population from Drake's Island, Plymouth Sound, produced a free-swimming larval stage in July of 1928 and 1933. It is known that some species of polychaete produce pelagic and non-pelagic forms according to the time of year (Mesnil & Caullery, 1917; Thorson, 1946). The Plymouth population was therefore re-examined to determine whether free-swimming larvae were produced during the entire breeding season.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , February 1967 , pp. 75 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1967

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

Allen, S. L., 1961. Genetic control of the esterases in the protozoan Tetrahymena pyriformis. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. 94, pp. 735–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beckman, L. & Johnson, F. M., 1964. Esterase variations in Drosophila melanogaster. Hereditas, Vol. 51, pp. 212–22.Google Scholar
George, J. D., 1963. Behavioural differences between the larval stages of Cirriformia tentaculata (Montagu) from Drake's Island (Plymouth Sound) and from Southampton Water. Nature, Lond., Vol. 199, p. 195.Google Scholar
George, J. D., 1964 a. The life history of the cirratulid worm, Cirriformia tentaculata, on an intertidal mudflat. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 44, pp. 47–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George, J. D., 1964 b. On some environmental factors affecting the distribution of Cirriformia tentaculata (Polychaeta) at Hamble. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 44, pp. 473–88.Google Scholar
Manwell, C., 1963. The blood proteins of cyclostomes: a study in phylogenetic and ontogenetic biochemistry. In The Biology of Myxine, pp. 372–455. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Manwell, C., Southward, E. C. & Southward, A. J., 1966. Preliminary studies on haemoglobin and other proteins of the Pogonophora. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 46, pp. 115–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mesnil, F. & Caullery, M., 1917. Un nouveau type de dimorphisme évolutif chez une Annélide Polychète (Spio martinensis). C. r. hebd. Seanc. Acad. Sci., Paris, T. 165, pp. 646–8.Google Scholar
Popp, R. A., 1961. Inheritance of different serum esterase patterns among inbred strains of mice. Genetics, Princeton, Vol. 46, p. 890.Google Scholar
Thorson, G., 1946. Reproduction and larval development of Danish marine bottom invertebrates, with special reference to the planktonic larvae in the Sound (Øresund). Meddr Kommn Havunders. Kbh., Ser. Plankton, Bd. 4, pp. 1–523.Google Scholar
Wilson, D. P., 1936. The development of Audouinia tentaculata (Montagu). J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 20, pp. 567–79.Google Scholar
Wilson, D. P., 1951. A biological difference between natural sea waters. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 30, pp. 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, D. P., 1952. The influence of the nature of the substratum on the metamorphosis of the larvae of marine animals, especially the larvae of Ophelia bicornis Savigny. Annls Inst. océanogr., Monaco, Vol. 27, pp. 49–156.Google Scholar
Wright, T. R. F. 1963. The genetics of an esterase in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics, Princeton, Vol. 48, pp. 787–801.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed