Escape Responses of Herbivorous Gastropods when stimulated by Carnivorous Gastropods

Abstract

BULLOCK¹ reported that many Californian Gastropoda respond to being touched by tube feet of starfish by crawling rapidly away from the starfish. He also showed that the response differs in details between genera, and between species of a genus; and that some species do not respond at all, or only occasionally. In some species of Acmaea, and in Haliotis cracherodii Leach ‘mushrooming’ (raising of the shell well clear of the substratum on the fleshy stalk of the visceral hump) accompanied by lateral swinging of the shell occurred before the animals crawled away; in others, notably the trochid Tegula, the animals merely glided rapidly away from the source of stimulation.