QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by ROBSON, E. A. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by ROBSON, E. A.

Journal of Experimental Biology 38,685-694 (1961)
Published by Company of Biologists 1961

The Swimming Response and Its Pacemaker System in the Anemone Stomphia Coccinea

ELAINE A. ROBSON ¹

¹ Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge

1. The swimming reaction of the anemone Stomphia coccinea to Hippasteria phrygiana from Danish waters is identical with that of North American Pacific coast anemones to the starfish H. spinosa and Dermasterias imbricata.

2. The swimming reaction is also evoked by the nudibranch Aeolidia papillosa, which feeds on the anemone (K. W. Ockelmann, unpublished observations). The foot of the mollusc secretes a specific chemical which is not the same as that produced by the starfish, and probably acts at different receptor sites in the anemone. The swimming response is interpreted as an escape reaction to predators which is also evoked by certain starfish.

3. Cutting experiments show that parieto-basilar contractions during swimming arise from a pacemaker ring about halfway up the column, and not from sensory or nervous reflexes. Parts of the system are radially equivalent. Once excited by effective sensory or electrical stimuli, the pacemaker shows properties common to other sources of rhythmical nervous activity. Sites of firing are labile but influence others, and the activity of the intact system is correspondingly integrated.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. H. Whittaker and P. P. Feeny Allelochemics: Chemical Interactions between Species Science, February 26, 1971; 171(3973): 757 - 770. [PDF]

				D. M. Ross and L. Sutton Swimming Sea Anemones of Puget Sound: Swimming of Actinostola New Species in Response to Stomphia coccinea Science, March 17, 1967; 155(3768): 1419 - 1421. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. M. Ross Preferential Settling of the Sea Anemone Stomphia coccinea on the Mussel Modiolus modiolus Science, April 23, 1965; 148(3669): 527 - 528. [Abstract] [PDF]