Nassarius Kraussianus Case Study
Motivation
A limited amount of information is available on the feeding behavior of Nassarius kraussianus. Laboratory experiments will be executed to determine the snails feeding rates as well as how certain factors such as temperature, food type and light levels affect these rates. The feeding rate and feeding behavior can provide beneficial information for future studies that might inevitably be needed for ecological models or to understand what makes N. kraussianus such a successful species.
Literature review
The Knysna Estuary is found on the South coast of South Africa roughly 241 kilometers from Port Elizabeth (Benson and Maddocks 1964). The site of collection for this study will be around the marshy environments around Thesen Island and the sandy …show more content…
They only remain buried until food is present as seen with Nassarius festivus, a Nassariid that occupies the coastal waters of Hong Kong (Morton and Jones 2003). Once bivalve and fish carrion are introduced (Cheung 1997) these gastropods use chemoreception in order to locate their food. Chemoreceptors are found on most parts of the snail body such as on the foot, within the mantle cavity, on tentacles as well as on the tips of the siphon (Croll 1983). Food can usually be detected from a far distance, once detected the siphon moves back and forth above the sand and the snail emerges rapidly moving its tentacles over the sand and advances towards the stimulus. Cheung (1997) described the proboscis, with a radula on its tip, to be everted and withdrawn while scraping up carrion .This behavior is also seen within Nassarius reticulatus (Kohn 1961) a European Nassariid (Santos et al., 2009). Since N. kraussianus feeds on bivalves, it may extend and withdraw its proboscis within the bivalve shell and scrape up flesh (Hickman et al.,
A limited amount of information is available on the feeding behavior of Nassarius kraussianus. Laboratory experiments will be executed to determine the snails feeding rates as well as how certain factors such as temperature, food type and light levels affect these rates. The feeding rate and feeding behavior can provide beneficial information for future studies that might inevitably be needed for ecological models or to understand what makes N. kraussianus such a successful species.
Literature review
The Knysna Estuary is found on the South coast of South Africa roughly 241 kilometers from Port Elizabeth (Benson and Maddocks 1964). The site of collection for this study will be around the marshy environments around Thesen Island and the sandy …show more content…
They only remain buried until food is present as seen with Nassarius festivus, a Nassariid that occupies the coastal waters of Hong Kong (Morton and Jones 2003). Once bivalve and fish carrion are introduced (Cheung 1997) these gastropods use chemoreception in order to locate their food. Chemoreceptors are found on most parts of the snail body such as on the foot, within the mantle cavity, on tentacles as well as on the tips of the siphon (Croll 1983). Food can usually be detected from a far distance, once detected the siphon moves back and forth above the sand and the snail emerges rapidly moving its tentacles over the sand and advances towards the stimulus. Cheung (1997) described the proboscis, with a radula on its tip, to be everted and withdrawn while scraping up carrion .This behavior is also seen within Nassarius reticulatus (Kohn 1961) a European Nassariid (Santos et al., 2009). Since N. kraussianus feeds on bivalves, it may extend and withdraw its proboscis within the bivalve shell and scrape up flesh (Hickman et al.,