. The Biological bulletin. Biology; Zoology; Biology; Marine Biology. 464 K. P. SEBENS contact in many cases, there is potential for the type of 'habituation' that occurs in Metridium senile (Purcell and Kitting, 1982). After 3-6 days of agonistic behavior, using catch-tentacles, Metridium essentially stops agonistic behavior. If this had oc- curred between neighboring A. xanthogrammica it should be possible to remove one of the neighbors and transplant it to the opposite side without the remaining anemone acting aggressively towards it. On the other hand, anemones transplanted from a distance
. The Biological bulletin. Biology; Zoology; Biology; Marine Biology. 464 K. P. SEBENS contact in many cases, there is potential for the type of 'habituation' that occurs in Metridium senile (Purcell and Kitting, 1982). After 3-6 days of agonistic behavior, using catch-tentacles, Metridium essentially stops agonistic behavior. If this had oc- curred between neighboring A. xanthogrammica it should be possible to remove one of the neighbors and transplant it to the opposite side without the remaining anemone acting aggressively towards it. On the other hand, anemones transplanted from a distance (>2 m) away should elicit agonistic behavior from one or both members of such pairs. It was not possible to test for habituation in the laboratory because the behavior of A. xanthogrammica is never completely normal in aquaria and the agonistic behavior cannot be reliably induced. Given more time in the field it would be possible to make permanent transplants of non-neighbor anemones to see if agonistic behavior towards them declines with time. During the 1982 study period, 18 non-neighbor transplants were carried out. Of these, six subject anemones behaved aggressively towards the transplant (Fig. 4). Transplanted anemones had much of their columns and usually some of their tentacles protruding through the wide mesh as they expanded in the confined space. During the 1983 period, six of 32 subject anemones attacked the transplants, for a total of 24% showing agonistic responses during the observation period (in 19% of total sub- merged time). This translates to a maximum of such behaviors per subject anemone per day, much higher than the .34 interactions in the population at large. Twenty seven transplants of anemones originally in close contact were carried out during the 1983 study period. Only one () of the subject anemones showed agonistic behavior (Fig. 4), which would give a maximum estimate of .20 agonistic encounters per neighboring anemone per day. A chi-sq
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Keywords: ., bookauthorlilliefrankrat, booksubjectbiology, booksubjectzoology
