Chaetogaster limnaei K.E. v. Baer. Ein Problem in der Labor-Wasserschneckenzucht f�r die Trematodenforschung

Patzig, Franz; Schmid, Katrin

doi:10.1007/bf00926719

Cited by 1 publication

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“…However, this is the first report of an anemone protecting the animal to which it is attached against parasitic infection. Along with a documented symbiosis between various freshwater snails and an oligochaete (Chaetogaster limnaei) living in their mantle cavity (Khalil 1961;Wajdi 1964;Fashuyi and Williams 1977;Patzig and Schmid 1981), the anemone-cockle association is a rare example of a cleaning symbiosis (see Poulin and Grutter 1996;CôtØ 2000) in which the cleaning organism feeds on the parasites before and not after they infect the host.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The mud flat anemone-cockle association: mutualism in the intertidal zone?

Mouritsen

Poulin

2003

Oecologia

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The intertidal cockle Austrovenus stutchburyi exists in a symbiotic relationship with the mud flat anemone Anthopleura aureoradiata, the latter using the shell of buried cockles as the only available hard substrate for attachment. The cockles are also host to a detrimental larval trematode Curtuteria australis that invades the bivalves through the filtration current, and here we demonstrate that the anemones significantly depress the rate by which cockles accumulate parasites in the field. Along the tidal gradient, the relative parasite load of cockles was lowest where anemones were most abundant, and the area occupied by anemones per square meter sediment surface explained 30% of the spatial variation in infection intensity. At a smaller spatial scale, parasite loads were significantly lower (34%) in cockles from patches with than without anemones at the same tidal height. A field experiment manipulating the density of anemones showed that the rate of parasite accumulation in cockles decreased with increasing anemone density, and that the generally positive relationship between infection intensity and cockle size tended to disappear in the presence of anemones. The results suggest that the anemone-cockle symbiosis is a non-obligate mutualistic relationship in which the former is provided with a suitable substrate for attachment whereas the latter obtains protection against parasitic infections.

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