Insecticidal Bustle of Corallivorous Gastropod, Drupa margariticola

Population connectivity of the corallivorous gastropod Coralliophila abbreviata: larval dispersal potential and genetic structure

Coralliophila abbreviata (Lamarck) is a coral-eating gastropod found throughout the Caribbean and Western Atlantic. These snails cause substantial and chronic mortality of the two ESA listed ‘Threatened’ scleractinian coral species, Acropora palmata and A. cervicornis. The objectives of this project were to 1) determine the species status of Coralliophila abbreviata 2) estimate the dispersal po...

Microbiota, Intestinal Immunity, and Mouse Bustle

The composition of the intestinal microbiota is regulated by the immune system. This paper discusses the role of cytokines and innate immunity lymphoid cells in the intestinal immune regulation by means of IgA.

Host specificity of four corallivorous Phestilla nudibranchs (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia)

Nudibranchs that exclusively eat scleractinian corals provide a rare opportunity to study specialist predation in the marine environment. To measure the diet breadth of 4 Phestilla species on Guam, we offered the nudibranchs different corals in choice and no-choice feeding assays. Larval preferences were determined by measuring the percent metamorphosis in response to different coral species. W...

Mucus-secreting lips offer protection to suction-feeding corallivorous fishes.

Of the 6,000 reef fish species, only 128 feed on corals [1,2]. Despite being widely available on tropical reefs, corals appear to represent a particularly challenging trophic resource, with mucus- and nematocyst-laden tissues spread over a sharp coral skeleton. Here we report that coral-feeding tubelip wrasses use highly modified lips to suck material from the coral surface. These lips have a s...

Trade-offs associated with dietary specialisation in corallivorous