Breeding System of a Sessile Animal

Abstract

Chia and Rostron¹ have suggested that the planula larvae of the common intertidal anemone Actinia equina L. are liberated, like those of many other species of anemone, into the plankton. They then enter individuals of the same species, male or female, and are nursed in the coelenteron, eventually being ejected as juveniles of various sizes. Their reasons for suggesting this rather unusual sequence are that almost all of the eighty-five individuals they sectioned were either male or female, and that juveniles occurred impartially in both sexes.