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J. Moll. Stud. (1999), 65, 435-452
© The Malacological Society of London 1999

COMPETITIVE GRAZERS AND THE PREDATORY WHELK LEPSIELLA FLINDERSI (GASTROPODA: MURICIDAE) STRUCTURE A MUSSEL BED (XENOSTROBUS PULEX) ON A SOUTHWEST AUSTRALIAN SHORE

BRIAN MORTON

The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong, Cape d'Aguilar, Shek O, Hong Kong

On a southwest Australian exposed rocky shore within King George Sound, the predatory muricid Dicathais orbita was observed feeding non-selectively on an array of sessile prey, including Austromegabalanus nigrescens, Galeolaria caespitosa, Patelloida nigrosulcata, Serpulorbis sipho, Siphonaria sp. and the mussel Xenostrobus pulex.

On a more sheltered, contiguous, platform of the same shore, however, a mat of Xenostrobus pulex occurred which was being predated by another muricid, Lepsiella flindersi. X. pulex occupied a wide vertical range on this shore. Higher-zoned, supralittoral, individuals were small and occurred as clusters in crevices and pits in the rock. A mat of mussels in the lower eulittoral zone was heavily predated by the drilling L. flindersi which attacked selectively the largest individuals. Between, in the high eulittoral, the mussel bed was formed into patches which were isolated by the grazing activities of an array of herbivorous gastropods. Recruitment here by X. pulex was to the patch edges and the grazer's habits of clustering against them, further kept them discrete. Little predation by L. flindersi occurred at this shore level.

The Xenostrobus pulex community was, therefore, highly structured down the shore sequentially by: (a), physiological stresses; (b), competitive grazing pressures and (c), predation.

(Received 2 February 1998; accepted 5 January 1999)


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