Dietary composition and diel feeding patterns of epipelagic siphonophores

Abstract

Prey consumption patterns are described for 24 species of epipelagic siphonophores studied during 1977–1980 in the Gulf of California, off Southern California, in the Sargasso Sea, and in Friday Harbor, Washington. Of the species, 7 were studied by day and at night, 15 were studied only by day, and 2 were studied only at night. Each of the 3 suborders of siphonophores had a characteristic diet. Siphonophores in the suborder Cystonectae, which had large gastrozooids, fed primarily on fish larvae. Species in the suborder Physonectae, which generally had few, large gastrozooids, consumed some small copepods, but consumed mainly large copepods and a variety of large, noncopepod prey. Species in the suborder Calycophorae, which generally had many small gastrozooids, fed mainly on small copepods, and also on other small prey organisms. The maximum size of prey tended to be correlated with gastrozooid length for all the siphonophores studied. For a given siphonophore species, the number of ingested prey was greatest at localities where prey organisms were most abundant in the surrounding seawater. For siphonophore species collected both day and night, there was a tendency for more prey to be consumed at night. Behavioral observations in the laboratory indicated that of 7 siphonophore species tested, 2 fed only in the light, and another fed only in the dark.