. The Biological bulletin. Biology; Zoology; Biology; Marine Biology. ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY OF TUBIPORA 339 Expa nded polyp Ca Icareous t ubes. Connecting platforms 5 mm. FIGURE 1. Diagram of a small portion of a Tubipora inusica colony. (Fig. 1). The skeletons are a dull red color but the living colonies usually appear various pale shades of green, blue or purple due to the color of the expanded polyps. Generally any one colony is composed of polyps of a single color, although occasionally portions of large colonies were found to be composed of polyps of a different color from that of the remaind
. The Biological bulletin. Biology; Zoology; Biology; Marine Biology. ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY OF TUBIPORA 339 Expa nded polyp Ca Icareous t ubes. Connecting platforms 5 mm. FIGURE 1. Diagram of a small portion of a Tubipora inusica colony. (Fig. 1). The skeletons are a dull red color but the living colonies usually appear various pale shades of green, blue or purple due to the color of the expanded polyps. Generally any one colony is composed of polyps of a single color, although occasionally portions of large colonies were found to be composed of polyps of a different color from that of the remainder of the colony. In many of these cases, there is a distinct boundary between the two color regions. If one part of such a coral was stimulated, the resulting wave of withdrawal would pass across the boundary, indicating that these specimens were functionally single colonies. Since the behavior of Tnbipora has been well described by Horriclge (1957) only a summary is given here with a few additional observations. When a tentacle of a polyp was lightly touched with a probe, it, and the neighboring tentacles of the polyp, shortened and bent away from the oral disk. Only rarely wrould a tentacle bend toward the oral disk in the manner described by Horridge. If the same tentacle were touched again, all the remaining tentacles shortened and bent away from the mouth ; and a third such stimulus caused polyp withdrawal. During withdrawal the tentacles were elevated and the polyp pulled down into its tube in discrete twitches. Withdrawal of one polyp usually had no effect on the remainder of the colony. If stimuli of higher intensities than those required to evoke re- sponses from individual polyps were used, a colonial response was invariably pro- duced. In Tubipora there appeared to be only one colonial response; polyp re- traction. A mechanical stimulus evoked a wave of polyp retraction which spread across the colony away from the point of stimulation. It proved very difficult to co
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Keywords: ., bookauthorlilliefrankrat, booksubjectbiology, booksubjectzoology
