Iwai Noriko, Sugiura Shinji, Chiba Satoshi
Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Matsunosato 1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8687, Japan.
Naturwissenschaften. 2010 Nov;97(11):997-1002. doi: 10.1007/s00114-010-0717-4. Epub 2010 Sep 19.
Platydemus manokwari is a broadly distributed invasive terrestrial flatworm that preys heavily on land snails and has been credited with the demise of numerous threatened island faunas. We examined whether P. manokwari tracks the mucus trails of land snail prey, investigated its ability to determine trail direction, and evaluated prey preference among various land snail species. A plastic treatment plate with the mucus trail of a single species and a control plate without the trail were placed side by side at the exit of cages housing P. manokwari. All trials were then videotaped overnight. The flatworms moved along plates with mucus trails, but did not respond to plates without trails, blank control (distilled water), or with conspecific flatworm trails. When presented at the midpoint of a snail mucus trail, the flatworms followed the trail in a random direction. The flatworms showed a preference when choosing between two plates, each with a mucus trail of different land snail species. Our results suggest that P. manokwari follows snail mucus trails based on chemical cues to increase the chance of encountering prey; however, trail-tracking behavior showed no directionality.
马来平角涡虫是一种广泛分布的入侵性陆生扁虫，主要捕食陆地蜗牛，并被认为是众多濒危岛屿动物群灭绝的原因。我们研究了马来平角涡虫是否会追踪陆地蜗牛猎物的黏液痕迹，调查了其确定痕迹方向的能力，并评估了对各种陆地蜗牛物种的猎物偏好。在饲养马来平角涡虫的笼子出口处，将一块带有单一物种黏液痕迹的塑料处理板和一块没有痕迹的对照板并排摆放。然后对所有试验进行了整夜录像。扁虫沿着有黏液痕迹的板子移动，但对没有痕迹的板子、空白对照（蒸馏水）或同种扁虫的痕迹没有反应。当放在蜗牛黏液痕迹的中点时，扁虫会随机沿着痕迹移动。当在两块分别带有不同陆地蜗牛物种黏液痕迹的板子之间进行选择时，扁虫表现出了偏好。我们的结果表明，马来平角涡虫基于化学信号追踪蜗牛黏液痕迹，以增加遇到猎物的机会；然而，痕迹追踪行为没有方向性。
