Appendix B. A figure showing a Polychaeta cladogram of the families we investigated.

A figure showing a Polychaeta cladogram of the families we investigated

Appendix D. A table showing mean ash-free dry mass per worm volume for palatable and unpalatable worms and worm body parts.

A table showing mean ash-free dry mass per worm volume for palatable and unpalatable worms and worm body parts

Appendix A. Loglinear models examining the relationship between palatability of worms and the substrate and region from which they were collected.

Loglinear models examining the relationship between palatability of worms and the substrate and region from which they were collected

Appendix E. A table showing calories for palatable and unpalatable worms and worm body parts.

A table showing calories for palatable and unpalatable worms and worm body parts

Appendix C. A table showing further purification of deterrent crude extracts for all species for which we had adequate material.

A table showing further purification of deterrent crude extracts for all species for which we had adequate material

Chemical defense of hydrothermal vent and hydrocarbon seep organisms: a preliminary assessment using shallow-water consumers

© Inter-Research 2004 · www.int-res.comDOI: 10.3354/meps275011Organisms at deep-sea hydrothermal vent or cold-seep communities represent oases of prey in an otherwise prey-poor desert. Why deep-sea consumers that remove other dense food patches do not rapidly remove the high biomass of prey from these communities is unclear. One potential explanation is that hydrogen sulfide, or other metabolites, in these chemoautotrophic prey could be serving as chemical defenses against generalist consumers; however, neither the palatability of these prey nor their potential defenses have been assessed. We fed tissues from 10 species of deep-sea polychaetes and 2 species of bivalves to shallow-water fishes Fundulus heteroclitus and Leiostomus xanthurus or crabs Callinectes similis and Pachygrapsus crassipes to assess their palatability to generalist consumers. Tissues from 4 polychaetes (Archinome rosacea, Lamellibrachia luymesi, Riftia pachyptila, and Seepiophila jonesi) and 1 bivalve (Calyptogena magnifica) were rejected by some consumers. Blood, which can be sulfide-rich, from R. pachyptila did not deter feeding. Sharp setae deterred feeding on the polychaete A. rosacea, while the other unpalatable species produced chemical extracts that deterred feeding. All of the chemically deterrent species contained chemoautotrophic endosymbiotic bacteria, suggesting that these microbial symbionts may produce metabolites that defend their host species. In several instances, consumers encountering novel, deep-sea prey consumed more on the first day of feeding than on later dates, or initially rejected the foods, but then consumed them after repeated encounters. Investigations with predators from the deep-sea are required to more fully understand the ecological role of prey defenses for deep-sea species

Palatability and defense of some tropical infaunal worms: alkylpyrrole sulfamates as deterrents to fish feeding

© Inter-Research 2003: www.int-res.comDOI: 10.3354/meps263299Numerous studies have investigated chemical defenses among sessile species growing on hard substrates, but few have addressed this for mobile species in soft-sediment communities. We investigated the palatability and potential chemical defenses of 11 worm species from soft-sediment systems in southern Florida, USA. Three species were unpalatable to the bluehead wrasse Thalassoma bifasciatum. The polychaete Cirriformia tentaculata and the hemichordate Ptychodera bahamensis were uniformly unpalatable. For the polychaete Eupolymnia crassicornis, the exposed tentacles were unpalatable, but the body, which remains protected in a deeply buried tube, was palatable. These unpalatable worms were chemically defended; extracts of C. tentaculata, P. bahamensis, and the tentacles of E. crassicornis deterred fish feeding. For C. tentaculata, bioassay-guided fractionation demonstrated that a mixture of 3 closely related alkylpyrrole sulfamates deterred fish at naturally occurring concentrations (2-n-hexylpyrrole sulfamate [1.6% of worm dry mass], 2-n-heptylpyrrole sulfamate [3.1% dry mass], and 2-n-octylpyrrole sulfamate [0.8% dry mass]). This appears to be the first documentation of characterized natural products defending a marine worm from consumers. For P. bahamensis and the tentacles of E. crassicornis, deterrent effects of crude extracts decomposed before specific compounds could be identifie