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Food-Group V.—Annelida.
As in the case of other wholly soft animals, the rapid maceration implies an incompleteness of records; but there is already ample evidence that worms are by no means a negligible fraction of the diet of some important fishes.
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| Predators | Prey | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glycera ovigera | Physalidonotus squamosus | Nereis australis | Nereis ammblyodonta | Nereis vallata | Timarete anchylochaetus | Eunice australis | Lepidonotus polychroma | Eulalia microphylla | Terebellids | Others | Total | |
| smooth-hound | X | X | Note (a) | 6 | ||||||||
| spined dogfish | X | X | X | X | X | 5 | ||||||
| red cod | X | X | X | X | X | 5 | ||||||
| sand flounder | X | X | X | X | X | X | Lumbriconereis sphaerocephala, Aphrodite talpa | 8 | ||||
| common sole | X | X | X | Gonida grahami | 4 | |||||||
| moki | X | X | X | 3 | ||||||||
| blue cod | X | X | X | X | X | 5 | ||||||
| sea perch | X | X | X | 3 | ||||||||
| red gurnard | X | X | X | X | 4 |
(a) Also Lumbriconereis sphaerocephala, Aphrodite talpa, Phycosoma annulata, Hemipodus simplex.
The following cases of predation on two species were noticed:—
| Predators. | Prey. | |
|---|---|---|
| skate | Glycera ovigera | Physalidonotus squamosus |
| witch | " " | " " |
| brill | " " | " " |
| warehou | " " | " " |
| tarakihi | " " | Timarete anchylochaetus |
| greenbone | " " | Lepidonotus polychroma |
| spotty | Nereis amblyodonta | Eulalia microphylla |
| pigfish | Harmothea praeclarox | " " |
| lemon sole | Lepidonotus polychroma | " " |
Single species were identified in the following cases:—
Glycera ovigera: silverside, rock cod, stargazer, barracouta.
Terebellids: yellow-belly, black flounder.
Nereis amblyodonta: mullet.
Eulalia microphylla: girdled parrot-fish, thornfish, suckerfish.
Timarete anchylochaetus: rockfish.
Finally, Nemertines were recovered from the green-back flounder.
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Analysis of Food-group V.—In addition to the Terebellids and Nemertines 15 species of worms were recognised among the stomach contents. Much the most frequent was Glycera ovigera; save for Physalidonotus squamosus and Eulalia microphylla, the rest occurred in only one or a few species. It would however give a false impression of the role of Annelids as sources of food if these results were treated as approaching completeness.
The fishes most dependant on worms are the smooth-hound and the sand-flounder, from each of which seven species were recognised, in addition to Terebellids in the latter fish. In general, the benthic fishes, notably the smaller Elasmobranchs and the flat fishes, are the chief users of this source of food.