Abstract
Under laboratory conditions, the Atlantic mackerel Scomber scombrus feed on Aglantha digitale, a small, transparent medusa common in temperate and boreal waters. The same feeding response to A. digitale was observed whether the medusae were offered alone or together with a mixture of copepod prey. A. digitale mortality in the path of the mackerel school is estimated to be near 100%. Median carbon and nitrogen content of A. digitale was equivalent to about ten small copepods (e.g. Pseudocalanus sp.). A. digitale is abundant in temperate-boreal waters and may be an important source of nutrition to mackerel in the northwest Atlantic.
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Communicated by R. W. Doyle, Halifax
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Runge, J.A., Pepin, P. & Silvert, W. Feeding behavior of the Atlantic mackerel Scomber scombrus on the hydromedusa Aglantha digitale . Mar. Biol. 94, 329–333 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428238
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428238