Sweeper Tentacles in a Gorgonian Octocoral: Morphological Modifications for Interference Competition

Elongate tentacles serve an agonistic function in sea anemones and scleractinian corals. Although certain octocorals (soft corals: Octocorallia: Alcyonacea) produce and exude allelochemicals that damage neighboring scleractinian corals, no specialized structures used in agonistic behavior have previously been identified in this large cnidarian subclass. Here, we describe the first evidence of the occurrence and use of specialized agonistic structures, sweeper tentacles, in an octocoral. The encrusting gorgonian Erythropodium caribaeorum Pallas (Octocorallia: Gorgonacea) is abundant on shallow reefs in the Caribbean, and competes for space with numerous coral species, sea anemones, and other cnidarians. Zones of contact between this gorgonian and several coral species were observed and recent damage to the coral colonies was noted. Furthermore, the gorgonian develops fields of modified polyps along such borders. These polyps have elongate tentacles termed `sweeper tentacles,' as in scleractinian corals. Su...

• Publication year

  1988

• Venue

  The Biological Bulletin

• Publication date

  1988-12-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.2307/1541729
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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