Ecology Summary - Cratena peregrina

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Ecology of Cratena peregrina

Main Ref.	Templado, J. and R. Villanueva, 2010
Remarks	Feeds directly on the hydranths of Eudendrium racemosum (Ref. 116462), wherein it's stimulated to feed and prefers hydranths which have captured the plankton, thus ingesting both the plankton and the hydroid polyp---a combination of predation and kleptoparasitism, a type of competition of stealing already captured food items. This combination does not fit into existing classifications, thus called 'kleptopredation.' Despite being an opportunistic predator which uses hydroids to capture prey from the column, hydranth forms only a fraction of its diet by volume. Plankton form at least half of its diet.

Main Ref.

Templado, J. and R. Villanueva, 2010

Remarks

Feeds directly on the hydranths of Eudendrium racemosum (Ref. 116462), wherein it's stimulated to feed and prefers hydranths which have captured the plankton, thus ingesting both the plankton and the hydroid polyp---a combination of predation and kleptoparasitism, a type of competition of stealing already captured food items. This combination does not fit into existing classifications, thus called 'kleptopredation.' Despite being an opportunistic predator which uses hydroids to capture prey from the column, hydranth forms only a fraction of its diet by volume. Plankton form at least half of its diet.

Aquatic zones / Water bodies

	Marine - Neritic	Marine - Oceanic	Brackishwater	Freshwater
Marine zones / Brackish and freshwater bodies	supra-littoral zone littoral zone sublittoral zone	epipelagic mesopelagic epipelagic abyssopelagic hadopelagic	estuaries/lagoons/brackish seas mangroves marshes/swamps	rivers/streams lakes/ponds caves exclusively in caves

Highighted items on the list are where Cratena peregrina may be found.

Habitat

Substrate
Substrate Ref.
Special habitats
Special habitats Ref.

Associations

Ref.
Associations
Associated with
Association remarks
Parasitism

feeding

Feeding type	mainly animals (troph. 2.8 and up)
Feeding type Ref.	Willis, T.J., K.T.L. Berglof, R.A.R. McGill, L. Musco, S. Piraino, C.M. Rumsey, T.V. Fernandez and F. Badalamenti, 2017
Feeding habit	selective plankton feeding
Feeding habit Ref.	Willis, T.J., K.T.L. Berglof, R.A.R. McGill, L. Musco, S. Piraino, C.M. Rumsey, T.V. Fernandez and F. Badalamenti, 2017

Trophic Level(s)

Estimation method	original sample		unfished population		Remark
Estimation method	Troph	s.e.	Troph	s.e.	Remark
From diet composition
From individual food items	3.52	0.26			Trophic level estimated from a number of food items using a randomized resampling routine.
Ref.

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