Influence of Ambient Flow around the Horseshoe Crab Limulus polyphemus on the Distribution and Orientation of Selected Epizoans

Abstract

Cumulatively scored distributions of the slipper shell gastropodCrepidula sp., the sand-building polychaete wormSabellaria vulgaris, the calcareous meandering tubed polychaeteFilograna implexa, the barnacleSemibalanaus balanoides, and the lacy bryozoanSchizoporella sp. were mapped on a cm-square gridded silhouette of the prosoma, opisthosoma, and movable spines, and telson of the horseshoe crabLimulus polyphemus stranded on Reeds Beach, Cape May County, New Jersey in the Delaware Bay. Statistically tested and contoured epizoan frequencies for 81 males and 59 females revealed that slipper shells and agglutinated worm tubes are concentrated near the movable spines on the opisthosoma, but rare on recessed chilarial or opercular pleurites, the prosoma, and telson. Barnacles are disproportionately concentrated in entapophyseal pits on the opisthosoma and in the longitudinal furrows flanking the cardiac lobe of the prosoma. Bryozoans are concentrated near movable marginal spines of the opisthosoma, but also found on all areas of the prosoma, opisthosoma, and hinge area in between, as well as the telson. Different morphologic sites for their respective modal concentrations may result from competitive exclusion of bryozoans by barnacles. Genal angles have lower statistically predicted frequencies of bryozoans, barnacles, and sand worm tubes. Apertural openings of calcareous tubes are predominantly posteriorly oriented whereas the anterior magin of slipper shells are randomly oriented on the opisthosoma. Eschewing differential mortality, nonrandom distributions indicate possible: rugophilic (groove-seeking) larval settlement behavior for barnacles that preferred the recessed hinge area, longitudinal grooves, and pits; rheophilic (current-seeking) larval settlement behavior for the gastropods and tube-building polychaetes that filter feed in the eddies generated near the movable spines of the downcurrent-sloping opisthosoma; and geotactic (gravity-influenced) larval settlement or post-settlement migration to the vaulted crest (cardiac lobe). Deficiencies of protruding epizoic skeletons on the genal angles and anterior margin of the host may be due to removal by abrasion as the horseshoe crab plowed through sediment or shearing of the epizoans from the carapace substratum in strong currents or waves.